Epiphany in Baltimore

Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005

Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com

Today, I went to school, and there's a new principal. Poof, the old one is gone, the new one is here. Wow.

They actually listened to the teachers, and I'm amazed. All 39 of us who put our job on the line by signing that petition, or those of us who sent a letter to the superintendent... we did it. I feel vindicated.

I still have 170 students, though, and this week is a stressful one. Today was a particularly terrible day, as I was asked to proctor the HSA Algebra test in the morning despite the fact that, well, I don't teach Algebra and I had class at the time. Granted, most of my students had to take this particular HSA, but I still think it was crummy. In edition, I got no lunch period or planning period today; as soon as the HSA was over, I had to teach. It was a long day.

It's also the end of the semester, so kids are trying to turn in work like crazy. Today was Coach Class, the only time a kid can make up missed work. It was a madhouse. For two or three hours straight, all I hear is "Mr. Epiph, can I have..." or "Mr. Epiph, what do I need now?" and I answer it by telling them to look at the grade sheets that HAVE BEEN POSTED ALL SEMESTER.

Over half of all my students will fail this quarter. I refuse to lower my expectations despite the apparent lowering of expectations of rules throughout the rest of the school. Kids are skipping, kids are coming late, and kids are just plain old not doing their reading. One girl came into today with a grade of a 32%, expecting to be able to get her grade up to a 70% by the end of Coach Class. "I'll clean up for you, Mr. Epiph." Uh, is that something other teachers do? Then I gave her a stack of work to do, in the hope that, maybe, she can get her grade up to a 50 or a 60. Later, I overhear her tell another student that she's going to be able to pass if she does all this work. "Uh, I never said that." Kids try to put words in your mouth all the time.

Then there's Bobby. The kids does no work, but has perfect attendance. The only day he's missed all year was when he was in court. He tells me today he wants to drop out. He tells me it's a comment I made to him - "It's amazing you come every day with what you've gone through. But if you're coming every day, why don't you do the dang work while you're here?" He said he thought about it, and, yeah, what is the point of coming every day if he's failing everything and not doing his work? I talked with him a long time today. He left by saying goodbye, like he was going to drop out. I think he's bluffing. I hope he is, at least.

Then, there's my low moment of the day. At a particularly rushed and crazy moment at the end of the day, a girl who has missed 8 of 16 class periods this quarter asks for her makeup work. I tell her what she knows - that makeup work can be done only during Coach Class. She goes into this big thing about how her mother won't let her stay after school. I say, "What? You miss half the days of school and you're not allowed to stay after school?" Then, I drop the stupid bomb: "Why isn't your mother committed to your education?"

Oops. It slipped out, she didn't even react to it (we just continued to have a fairly pleasant conversation and I gave her what I could) and I'll probably call tomorrow and apologize to the mother. But, thinking back, woah, that certainly was not one of the prouder things I've said as an educator.

Neither was this exchange:

Kid: Why is 80% of this class failing?

Me: It's not 80%, it's 60%. And of that 60%, 20% never come. But, since you asked, it's pretty much because this class sucks. People skip all the time and don't do their work when they're here.

My bitterness with the old principal and my unfair workload has caused me to run my mouth like crazy lately, and I need to stop. Now that I don't have this uncertain enemy down below, I shouldn't feel so bold. I feel like I have some spending capital because of the excessive amount of students I teach and the place I am on the seniority totem pole (5th in my department, top-third in the school), but there's no reason to be stupid.

I'm going to NYC for the weekend tomorrow. I don't know if I'll be updating again until tomorrow.