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Smiles in the Classroom
I feel like these blogs are often just pure frustrations. So this week I want to post some things that make me laugh and love what I do.
- I bought a teeshirt that says “Stay gold, Ponyboy” from Amazon, because I am teaching The Outsiders. Do I have extra money to buy such an unnecessary shirt? No. Do I want to wear it to class just to see how many of my 8th graders laugh at my geeky ways? Yes. Casual Friday, here I come.
- Before taking a break to write this post, I was reading through journals from the writing class to comment on. I love their journals- 8th graders are so clever..and FUNNY! I am laughing out loud reading what they have to say about the random prompt of “Write about skunks for 15 minutes.” Who would have guessed that 12 year olds have such violent hatred for skunks? But more than that, the journals are letting me hear a strong voice from a quiet, painfully shy little girl who never speaks in class. She is funny and smart and a wildly talented writer, which I never would have guessed from watching her in class. My own classroom will ALWAYS have regular journals, for this reason.
- I write the journal prompts along with the kids, and Friday’s was on a family member. I wrote about my little sister, who I have been missing a lot lately. It included the fact that we got tattoos together. (“I love that my sister is so unique and adventurous. I don’t know of anyone else who would have agreed to get matching tattoos with me, just because I asked and she loved me that much.”) The next 5 minutes were full of questions about my tattoo, and amazement that I have one. It’s 2010, guys, I didn’t realize tattoos were still that noteworthy. However, more noteworthy was the fact that I said my sister was my very best friend. They apparently still all hate their siblings. I told them not to worry, I hated my sister at their age, too. You don’t appreciate them until you’re older.
- When going through the vocab list, I demonstrated the word “mimic” by mimicking the Jedi mind trick. They all got that vocab word right, I will have you all know. While rolling their eyes at me.
- I taught my class the difference between Mrs. and Miss a month ago.I told them to call me Miss because I am not a married woman. Today they all asked me if I am engaged, because I wear a purity ring on my left ring finger. It looks NOTHING like an engagement ring, so I told them that if I got engaged, the ring would have a diamond. The response? “Aw, Miss Lackey, that’s cold! You’d turn a man down if he gave you a ring without a rock??” This from a girl wearing a ring pop given to her by her boyfriend. (Who knew they even still made ring pops?)
- The writing class, which journals, is actually full of very funny kids. How am I supposed to reprimand a kid when I am laughing so hard that it’s obvious I don’t really disapprove? For example, I let the kids know that we would not grade their journals on content, ie opinions. I used the example of, “If B. writes about loving gangsta’ rap, I won’t grade him down just because I don’t listen to rap.” A tall, skinny little white kid in a church-camp teeshirt looks up at me and deadpans “That’s pimp, yo.” I have to admit that I couldn’t hold it together; I busted out laughing, which made the rest of the class lose it, and it took forever to pull everyone back to focus. Whoops. When the need for reprimand is real, I can wait and hold it in until conference period. But some of those borderline moments I just have to laugh at and let go.
- A sweet little 6th grader in my speech class comes up to hug me and say thank you before or after every class. I always ask her what she is saying thanks for, and her response is always “I dunno- for everything.” I am not sure what is going on there, but I am glad she knows I am here for her.
I love teaching. It makes me laugh, and those moments far outnumber the frustrating ones. It is truly heartbreaking to think about switching placements next semester- I don’t want to leave these kids!
MEAP Time!
MEAP starts tomorrow for my students, and they sure were antsy today because of it. The MEAP prep tests are over, and our “Study Island” class has reverted to its actual writing class. The students were really unprepared to write something today, and they could not focus even for the 4 minute freewrite we gave them. My CT told me that the kids were in for a rude awakening, because she was going to teach them how to write well this semester. Here’s hoping that the kids shape up quickly; staying quiet and writing for 4 minutes should not have been a huge challenge! My CT and I have been working on some writing assignments that should be pretty fun for the kids, if they just open their minds to writing.
On a separate note, the MEAP schedule is throwing us off in the other classes. They are Tues/Wed/Thurs of this week and Tues/Thurs of next week. The kids have shortened classes those days, and test for two hours in the middle of the day. Teachers are told to not give any tests or quizzes until after the MEAP, and only the most minimal homework, if we have to. What a pain! Having to put the entire unit of all of our classes on hold, all for a standardized test that’s validity has been called into question in recent years, is so frustrating. The kids are super stressed out about it, too. I can’t wait until the testing is over.
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The Human Puppy
I think every class has one. The human golden retriever puppy. Enthusiastic, happy, and incessantly inquisitive, the puppy in my class is an eleven year old little girl. “M” is impossible to dislike, but her constant comments are a distraction to the classroom. Whether it’s semi-related to the topic or a complete non sequitur, her observations are always clever or entertaining, but almost always draw the rest of the class away from the topic at hand. My CT told me that if I had any ideas on how to deal with “M” to just run with them.
I got the idea that “M” does not need to be silenced altogether, she just needs to be quieted. After all, her remarks are not inappropriate or mean spirited. Her positive, intelligent thinking should not be punished. I decided to get a notebook to give her. Before class last week I called her to my desk and handed her the notebook. I told her I loved her comments and want to hear what she has to say, but I’d like her to start writing them down instead of saying them out loud and distracting the class. She instantly knew what I was talking about and gave me an example of how she got the class off track the previous day. What’s more, she was super excited to get a notebook that was “all hers, special” and that I would read and write comments in every day. I give it to her at the start of the period, then take it from her at the end so I can read and respond in it. This way she won’t lose the notebook or use it for other purposes. It worked like a charm. We rarely have any off topic comments from “M” anymore, and her notebook is a fun, funny read every afternoon. (Example: “Is popcorn just hot corn? What does SOS stand for? I think the teacher’s printer is little and cute, don’t you?”)
What I am struggling with is the off-topic students who are not being appropriate, clever, or even entertaining. What do I do about the boy who won’t let any student around him concentrate, and doesn’t care what I say to him? If the student does not care what I think, or even what his punishment or class grade will be, then how can I get him to let the other students work?
Reading for fun
I have a very talented friend named Jen Brown, who last year came out with the young adult novel Hate List. The book deals with the aftermath of a high school shooting, told from the perspective of the shooter’s girlfriend. When my CT mentioned that she was waiting for Hate List to come to Barnes and Noble so she could buy it, I of course excitedly lent her my copy. She decided that, instead of reading the book herself, she would let me read it out loud to the 8th grade ELA class.
This class that I am reading to is the most rowdy one of the day. They are snippy and chatty and cannot seem to pay attention to save their lives. What’s more, they made their disdain for reading clear on day one. I was apprehensive about reading to a group of kids who clearly did not want to be read to. But on the second day of class, I opened Hate List and began to read.
This rowdy class became so enthralled by the book that you could hear a pin drop. Each day now, they ask if we can read, and stay on task to finish their work in time to have reading time at the end. They have huge eyes as I read about the main character drinking or smoking as a sophomore in high school, and giggle when they can tell I am substituting in “crap” where the book says “shit.” In general, they love that the book is realistic and not watering down such a serious situation. They feel mature knowing that I think they can handle this tough novel, and act more mature accordingly. I asked Jen if she would do a Skype interview with the class, after the kids begged me to ask her. When I told them she agreed, you would have thought I told them Justin Beiber was interviewing with them. (Or whichever teeny-bopper star is currently in favor.) Later this week they start reading The Outsiders. Because we have started making comparisons between the two books, they are excited to start Hinton’s classic, and some of them have started reading ahead of time.
This is why I wanted to be an English teacher. I want kids to get swept away in a story, and see the power that words have. I love seeing them realize that a book can indeed captivate them and change their lives, and that lessons taught in books from 5 decades ago can still ring true today.
