Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2003
I'm finally getting to know my students., posted at 7:11 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I feel very busy. It seems every moment of my spare time is taken up lately, whether by the restaurant or the calling of parents or scheduling the Outward Bound trip. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that feeling of getting overwhelmed tiptoes into my mind every now and then, only to be scared away by someone's nice comment or the amusing smile of a student.I'm getting to know my new students, finally. Seeing my students only every other day - and losing the time in school to Isabel - has meant I've only taught my students seven times so far. It feels terrible to be in October and not know all my students' names, but it's true. But some have emerged - Jerel, a dark-skinned kid with a quick grin and a palpable earnestness; Missha, a bespectacled girl with a dry wit who has already accused me of robbing her writing of style (I'm fond of that sort of challenge); Alpha, a charismatic kid who will be a ladykiller in a couple of years; Nikka, a young-acting girl with a lot of energy who I thought would be a problem at first but is actually a joy to have in class; Ben, one of only three white students out of my 150, who doesn't possess a touch of teenage cynicism, but is apparently thinking of transferring because he's having a hard time making friends. I'm finally starting to have kids hang out in my room after school, and I think the attendance to my 9th grade film series on Thursday (we're watching Of Mice and Men) is going to be through the roof.
Last night, I got this epiphany that I wanted to move the creative writing piece of my unit to today's class period instead of the end. It involves the students choosing a character cut out from a magazine, and then using the writing process and creating a character based upon the cut, then eventually basing a story around the character. I have decided to add more creative writing to my course this year, with the justification that students will better understand an author's choices - or, heck, understand that an author makes choices - by being in that author mindset. I'll have them use at least three of the methods of characterization, have them add a conflict, and see how ambitious they get.
Anyhow, I spent a few hours last night with my Newsweeks, my Times, my Entertainment Weeklys, cutting out photographs of people in ads. I wanted to get more people of color, though, so I then headed out to 7-11 and got a copy of Ebony magazine. (I'm sure it must have looked amusing to see a white man buying nothing but an Ebony magazine at 10:30 pm at a 7-11...). Anyhow, I spent hours doing this, then came in this morning to school to find our department out of paper and all of our copy machines broke down.
I was so pissed off that, later in the day, three of my co-workers found me later to ask what was wrong. I didn't say anything to anybody, but the look on my face was apparently enough.
It turned out to be not a big deal that I couldn't get my copies done. Practicing active reading skills with "The Most Dangerous Game" spent much more time than I had imagined. I always like to tell my students that they're to have two voices going in their head at all times when reading - the author's voice, and their own voice interacting with the text (questioning it, commenting on it, evaluating it). I like to model a "read-aloud-think-aloud" with students, demonstrating for them what should be going on in their head. I don't plan my "read-aloud-think-aloud"s, preferring to allow for a fresh paragraph reading for my students. I tell them this, that they're getting my thoughts fresh out of my brain. Today, it was pretty funny, because I happened to choose the paragraph in which Rainsford falls into the sea. To prevent from drowning, he strips off his clothes and swims to shore. At the point when he strips, my "think aloud" comment was, "Oh my gosh, this man's naked in the ocean. What if a shark comes?". The kids all laughed.
After school was the Outward Bound meeting. There's a kid I really want to have go on the trip, and I've pushed him to get in his paperwork and stuff. His current English teacher is right next door to me, and she couldn't be more of an opposite. She's rigid, strict, and regimented. I think the kids learn a lot in there, but our styles are very different. Anyhow, she has this student now. He was in after school in her room, and I walked in there and asked her how he was doing. I'm good friends with the teacher. She shows me his grades, and he's failing. Granted, it's early, but he got a 20% on his summer reading quiz. I called across the room to him: "Joshua, why did you get an 87 in my class and are failing this class?"
He sheepishly said, "I'm failing?".
"Well, you're certainly not doing very good."
I laid into him a bit, telling him he needs to get those grades up before the trip occurs in two weeks. I feel better about pushing him to go, because he needs a little bit of motivation, a swift kick in the pants. The trip might do that for him.
Off to the gym...