Sup Teach?

Heater on. Door shut. Backpacks on the floor. Scarves on necks. Binder, paper, pencils on desk. It’s cold out there.

Students cough death left and right. Left and right. Noses blown. Tissue containers (provided by my own budget) vanish daily.

But learning… must. go. on.

Aaaand, I think I should either eat more oranges or buy myself a box of emergen-c.

Or get more rest, or take less stress.

–

(Before 1st period)

Me: “N, I think you got me sick” (sneezes. blows nose)

N: “Well it ain’t my fault. I didn’t wanna come. Blame grandma.”

I come into an office in the morning. I get a paycheck every two weeks. Weekly meetings. Performance evaluations. 20 page research paper.

[beat]

One of those things didn’t happen last year.

Teaching continues to be up and down for me. This week, Monday made the other side greener than ever. Grass freshly cut and sparkling. Tuesday and Wednesday were up. Way up. I was happy with my lessons. They were engaging. I was liking my students, despite all the little antics. Hey man, they’re high schoolers in Oakland. What do you expect? It’s all good in the neighborhood! Today, I was blind-sided by 5th period. Every little tiny antic turned into an annoyance. Couldn’t take it – made it apparent to my students that I was upset, and laid the smackdown at the end of class. I swear, there’s something about bringing a raucous group of teens to silence. Nonetheless, 6th period proceeded to finish what 5th period had started and arriving home meant going straight to bed. Mentally… exhausted.

And now, tomorrow… what’s next?

Teaching geometry during my first year felt like one long trial run. It was my first time teaching content, my first time encountering common misconceptions, my first time exploring what kind of lessons would be most engaging and effective. It was difficult to anticipate where we’d take a wrong turn, to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t. You kind of just keep moving forward blindly.

Teaching geometry a 2nd time around, you notice the difference. Your lessons slowly evolve. The lessons that turned awry the first time around are improved. The concepts you didn’t hit well become stronger. And those rare lessons that were gold are enhanced. I see it happening as I creep towards the midway point of my 2nd year, and I know that it has to only get better during year 3. A process of evolution.

The issue: This year I teach only 2 geometry classes. The other 3? Algebra.

Taking on a new prep feels like repeating the 1st year process all over again. And like I said before, Algebra is much more difficult to teach than Geometry, especially if it’s to a group whose propensity to the topic is virtually nonexistent.

I’m blindly moving forward, hoping some of this stuff will stick. Yet, looking back at these past 14 weeks, I can easily point to more than a handful of lessons that were downright horrible.

Introducing new material THE WRONG WAY is toxic. And you see it happening. You notice students chronically approach problems THE WRONG WAY as a consequence. You’re aware that some students can walk through the motions correctly but have NO CONCEPTUAL CLUE as to why they do what they do. You wish you could time travel back and change the way you did things the first time, but realize you’re weeks behind the curriculum pacing guide and… blindly… move… forward.

As a new teacher, I see no solution to this. Unless some vet walks me through each new topic daily, shedding light on every angle of every lesson, I’ll remain blind. It’s a process I must go through before becoming much improved during my second go round, a process every new teacher must face.

To teach is like to reach
for an apple that runs away but looks so sweet
so we keep on reaching…

I’ve aged three for every night, my kids wallow in grammar worksheets and Science outlines
history texts and 8am wrecks
math problems and home problems
vocab activities and 2:20 revelries (unless you got detention, then it’s 3:20 ya dig?)
fractions and inverse reactions and shoes so poor they lack traction
SSR and two tone cars and “I wanna learn but it’s just, so , hard..”
Yet every morning they’re there
So Iam there…
and every morning their eyes are weak and their heads are meak
and my eyes are wide and my head is high
’cause I gotta get em going
even if Iam barely
and I gotta get ‘em learning
even if I am reaching
and who cares if their running
I still gotta be teaching.

OK so I am going to try to make this a more regular thing.

I teach 7th grade near downtown Oakland, all inclusive, 6 hours a day 5 days a week ( plus two hours a day tutoring) with 26 12-14 year olds…then 2-3 hours a night plus weekends…can ya dig? Ofcourse you can, did I forget where I was blogging? Thanks to Mr. G for getting me going, I swear this will not be the last of mistermaestro…  

see post below.

I, Ms. R, am guilty of not blogging in a really long time. Thank you for the push, Mr. G! The biggest reason I haven’t written anything is because student-teaching and classes have been kicking my butt… with a steel toe boot. We’re all busy though, especially this time of year. (I’d just like to add that 70 degree weather in December doesn’t feel right. Boooo global warming. Booooo.)

I’m also guilty of wanting to post but deciding not to. Sometimes I start to feel that its not profound/inspiring/revolutionary enough. I’m very thankful for our readers (hi guys!), but sometimes I do feel the pressure to make every post AWESOME. I don’t know how that happened. Its not like people are saying “Hey, every post you write must change someone’s life.” I gotta throw that mindset out the door. I’m just here to share my adventure, so profound/inspiring/revolutionary or not, that’s what I’ll do

It seems we ST folk are collectively paralyzed, or maybe tis’ the season for teachers to experience writer’s block? I blame it on the weather… or:

One contributor and I spoke excitedly a few months ago on the topic of our site’s recent success. And by success, I mean increased readership. I pin this on dy/dan, whose recent mention of ST brought some traffic flow. Thank you, sir. Sincerely. We jokingly proposed creating SupTeach t-shirts for all contributors once our subscriber count hit the 100-mark…

Is it possible that we’re paralyzed b/c of this larger reader base? Are we now self-conscious of what we have to say? Are we afraid of critique? Do we presume that our rookie words will be unworthy to vets?

SupTeach does not have a specific purpose. Check our “about”, check our sidebar and you get the sense that we’re here merely to share our experiences – even if only to our small blogosphere of friends.

I’m not sure what my specific goal was in beginning this post, but I would like to acknowledge that I hope to begin writing again (and more consistently) but without presumption that 100+ readers will come across my words. Not that an increased readership is a hindrance; it’s a blessing. And I love it. And I love feedback. But only because I know words will flow more freely from these weary teacher fingers of mine if I do so.

So to begin, one awesome quote from my 2nd period remedial algebra class:

Me: “Really, did you guys figure out 2n+2 all by yourselves?”

S1: “No, she did! Cus she’s a freak!”

She: “No, I’m not a freak. I’m just smarter than I thought I was.”

Indeed, she, indeed. Even if only a handful of revelations like this one occur yearly, you LOVE it when they do.

And to end:

SupTeach writers, WHERE THE EFF ARE YOU!? COME OUT OF YOUR EFFIN CAVES!!!!!!!!!!!

I’ve noticed that I’ve been griping with my fellow teachers a lot. From the kids who think they know it all, to the unpredictable schedules, to colleagues who think they can get away with being useless, to the clocks that NEVER seem to stay in sync with one another…we whine and grouch and make a fuss about it all.

But, all in all, I’d have to say I don’t hate teaching. Sometimes I even look forward to it.

Don’t judge me! Just because I don’t particularly like it, doesn’t mean that I don’t give it my all every day.

Tonight, I baked a freakin’ leche flan for the culinary class I teach on Fridays, just to prove a point to my kids that the Spanish had a huge influence on Philippine culture. I’ve never made leche flan before tonight.

If that’s not passion for doing the best that you can do for the kids, then I don’t know what is.

Before this gets too stale, 3 Reasons why the Halloween school day was awesome:

1. Allowing the Halloween spirit infiltrate my lesson.

It was Friday, a review and quiz day. Rather than using my default green background on the keynote, I used orange. And rather than merely putting up review questions on the board that our class could try and discuss, I interspersed screen shots of scary movies…

Take, for example:

I let the image sit on the screen for a mere 3 or 4 seconds, acting as if I was unaware, before I moved onto the next slide. Got a few students with it. Lovely.

2. Harnessing the power of the projector to enhance the effects of one scary story.

More specifically, my FAVORITE scary story. I started the quiz ten minutes earlier than normal, so that I could finish class with a 10 minute story. Shut off the lights, shut the blinds, and lit a candle to set the ambiance. I set the projector to off with my remote (meaning, I could instantly turn it back on with remote). Even the most misbehaving of students gave full attention as I went through the tale. Seconds after I hit the story’s climax, in a completely dark room, I let this image unsuspectingly pop onto the screen:

My projector covers the entire height of the whiteboard. This image was huge. And this time, I got em’ ALL. Students screamed. I’m talking, legit screaming… the type you hear at the scariest moments of the scariest of scary movies. Well, it wasn’t THAT amazing, but it definitely brought a smile to this teachers face. It definitely beat showing a video and passing out candy like other colleagues had done.

3. My costume.

My roommate awoke and sent a groggy ‘good morning’ my way. “Like my costume?” I asked with enthusiasm. “Uhhh, you’re just you… but with a backwards cap on.” Most of my non-teacher friends wouldn’t understand, but this could possibly be my FAV costume of all time – and all I did was dress as myself. You see, as a teacher, you’re on display EVERY DAY. Students grow accustomed to your look, your style. They notice any sort change… a new pair of shoes, a new tie, new hairstyle, etc. I ALWAYS wear glasses to school. On this day, I took em off and wore what any of my male students would wear on a typical day. Baggy jeans, t-shirt, a’s cap, nike’s, a hoodie halfway zipped with the string tied. To complete the outfit, I threw on a black jansport, and some unconnected ipod headphones.

Got EVERYONE! Teachers, staff, students… I encountered more scenarios I can count on my fingers where folks REALLY DID mistake me as a student.

One student’s depiction:

I know it’s a week late, but Happy Halloween! Find ways to make this job fun! It’s there!

There’s always something to grade, something to plan, something to analyze, something to improve, something school related that I should be doing at every moment of the day. Or, at least that is what it feels like. Though (for my own mental and emotional health) I make time for myself and for loved ones, I cannot help but feel guilty for not being “productive.” So, the time I set aside to catch my breath is not always enjoyed to its fullest. My goodness I’m a wreck, aren’t I? Or maybe this is the gauntlet I have to survive as a first year teacher.

P.s. Our president elect is a dream boat.
P.p.s. NY is fricken cold.