Week Ten

The Good:
Highlight #1 -- Last week was my school's "Spirit Week." I loved the themed days in high school, and I think I love them even more now! Monday (Halloween) was simply costume day. I wore a toned down version of my weekend's Halloween costume, The White Swan. Tuesday was "Pajama Day." I will NEVER turn down the opportunity to wear slippers to school. Wednesday was "Twin Day." I dressed up with my colleague, Sylvia Barrett. Thursday was "Wacky Tacky Day," my favorite day of the week. I can't get enough of mismatched patterns and bright colors. (I think that I was supposed to be alive during the 80s.) Friday was "Professional Day." This was not a "traditional" spirit week day, but it was certainly nice to see our students dressed up. I love these themed days because I believe that they bring students and teachers together.

Highlight #2 -- Ms. Barrett told me an adorable story about one of our students from last year. Jonathan, who is now a 10th grader, went to visit Ms. Barrett one morning before school. He was all dressed up because the sophomores were going to hear a Holocaust survivor speak at a local college. For some reason, Jonathan started talking about Romeo and Juliet (which we read at the end of his 9th grade year). He asked Ms. Barrett when she was going to start the unit this year because he wanted to come and observe. Just this story in and of itself would have been my week's highlight because I'm was so happy to hear that Jonathan, a student who really struggles with reading and writing, loved our unit on Romeo and Juliet. But, that wasn't the end of the story. Ms. Barrett told Jonathan that she wouldn't be teaching the Romeo and Juliet unit this year because she would be home with her new baby. She explained that I would be teaching the unit for her. Jonathan replied that the new 9th grade students better be nice to me or else he was going to beat them up! I don't know what part of the story is cuter: Jonathan loving Romeo and Juliet or Jonathan wanting to defend me because he cares about me. :) Either way, I was so glad that Ms. Barrett shared the story with me because it made me incredible happy. I deeply value my relationships with students. Building and nurturing these relationships and mentorships are my favorite parts of teaching. So, to hear that one of my students values our relationship meant a great deal to me.

(Note: Neither Ms. Barrett nor I condone violence of any sort, of course!)

The Bad:
I'm noticing surprising errors in my students' papers -- ones that I did not expect to see from high school seniors. Sometimes there are so many grammatical errors in students' papers that I cannot even comment on the content because I have no idea what they are trying to write about. Furthermore, many of my students do not yet seem to be able to break down a prompt into its most basic parts in order to answer it fully. These skills, of course, need to be taught explicitly. And, I don't mind teaching them. I have just been surprised the level of skills that I am teaching.

I'm worried that I will not be able to teach enough this year to properly prepare my students for the rigors of college coursework. My class was designed to give my students access to more writing skills and to more practice using those valuable skills. The hope is that this extra intervention will give our school's seniors a better chance of not being placed in a remedial English class during their first year of college. I don't know if I'm going meet my goal....

There are many reasons that explain why my students are "behind" in their writing skills. First and foremost, the majority of my students are English Language Learners. Learning a new language and then learning to WRITE in that language efficiently can be a life long process. It is incredibly difficult! Can you even imagine? Many of my students are extremely articulate when explaining their answer orally; however, their precision and conciseness are lost in translation when they are asked to be their words down on paper.

My students and I have a long way to go together this year. I just hope I can provide them with enough tools to be successful at the next level...


The Ugly:
To be 100% honest, I really didn't enjoy teaching this week. I was annoyed by having to harass my students about coming to class prepared, being accountable for their work and behavior, and adhering to deadlines. My colleagues have told me that their are weeks like these -- "pain cave" weeks. I have been advised to just push through weeks like these and try to remember the good things about teaching...

I know that I want to be a teacher. I know that I want to teach high school. I know that I want to teach students who are traditionally underserved. And, I certainly know that I want to teach at the amazing high school that I am at now! But, sometimes, I struggle to teach young people who ACT LIKE they don't want to learn. Please don't get me wrong -- my students want to learn. I am confident of that. Most of them desperately want equal access to the skills and tools that they need to be successful in our competitive world. However, society and stereotypes get in the way sometimes. And, I get tremendously frustrated by that. I ask them, "Don't you want to be different? Don't you want to defy and CHANGE these negative stereotypes?"Most of the time, the answer to those questions is, "Yes." But, this week, I just felt like my students were indifferent....

Needless to say, I'm glad that this week is over, and I look forward to the week ahead.