Looking Up

Open house last night really rejuvinated me for teaching this year. Not a lot of parents came, but the ones that did were great to talk to, and I now really feel a sense of accountability to make sure they children succeed this year. No one even said anything about my dripping AC unit, the growing puddle in front of my classroom (due to the cracking trashcans using to collect the dripping water) or the mildew smell of my room (due to said puddle)!

Today I became an active employee of EBR schools. I can't tell you how excited I was to be able to call and finally recieve my employee number (I think they guy at the help desk thought I was mentally unsound to be teaching children with how excited I was). I now actually have access to my email account, I can stop logging on to the general new teacher server, and I can start saving stuff on my desktop! I feel like a real employee now.

Also, almost all my students have been tested as well. I started pulling them from their last block class to test, which turned out to be a double win for me: I had a silent room which they could take the test, and I gained some major points with the students for getting them out of class.

I lost a lot of really awesome students though because they tested too low to stay in my class. I'm really hoping Langugage Exclimation does them well, and it's strange how much I think I'm going to miss them in my class. I really never thought I'd say that about some of them.

Maybe this week will be it

Why did I decide to work with kids? Germs tend to stick to them like tongues stick to metal poles in the winter. And the worst part - THEY'RE NEVER THE ONES TO GET SICK. They just carry those germs around wherever they go, plotting the next teacher they're going to infect. Last week it was me. So it's not only another week of filling time before I can start Read 180, I have to do that with an awful head cold, too. And I guarantee they'll just sit in the back snickering, elated their evil plan to give me their sticky germs worked...

Ok, so I don't actually think they did this intentionally, but I am bitter because I know some of them had been especially sniffly last week. However, I met with my MTLD (manager of teacher & leadership development - yes, TFA has gotten out of control with their acronyms) this afternoon and we came up with a pretty good plan of action for a week of content-related and productive stalling time. Pair that with a re-vamped positive behavior reward system, I think I'm ready to show those snot-nosed children what I've got.

The first few weeks

This is nothing what I imagined. I don't know what I really was thinking it would be like. I guess, to be honest, I pictured myself coming into an out-of-control classroom, implementing a simple but strict classroom management plan and watching my students begin transforming into model students before my eyes.

Instead this is what I have: an absolutely out-of-control, over-sized classroom where half of my students have failed 8th grade at least once, four of my students are 16 and three will be by the end of the year. Despite my simple, but (kinda strict) classroom management policy, and admittedly shakey, but in-tact positive behavior plan, my classroom remains out-of-control. It's quite beyond what I could imagine an out-of-control classroom would be like. I haven't even been able to begin the program I am teaching because the school board's tech services wasn't aware there are now 8th graders at the high school I'm at and therefore, my students were not imported into the system so that I could give them the prilimenary test they need to determine whether or not they should even be in my class (which, by the way, is holding the rest of the 8th grade up from leveling classes, leaving some classes still with 40+ students. Not really my fault, but add that hanging over my head).

Despite the fact that when I walk out of school everyday, I secretly (or sometimes, not so secretly) hope it'll be the last time, I am fiercly protective of my students. I am not writing this so everyone that reads can say, "poor Allison has it so hard," or "not surprising, she probably teaches at an all black school, and you know those black kids don't know how to behave." No. Because it's not because they're poor and it's certainly not because they're black. It's because the system doesn't give a shit about them, and I think they really know it.

They didn't say it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it. I'm starting to think 'they' didn't have my students, but I sure do hope that they knew what they were talking about.

This is not the first day I envisioned.

Dear TFA,

your (what I now realize was) cushy TFA-run summer schools at institute did not prepare me for the madness that is Glen Oaks High School.

By the way, I start teaching tomorrow and...

a) East Baton Rouge school board still doesn't know I work for them; consequently I'm not in the system and have access to NOTHING

b) I have no idea how much students are in my class. Oh, but neither does the rest of the school so it's okay.

I could go on, but alas, I have an undetermined number of 8th graders coming to my room tomorrow expecting me to teach them something, so I should probably go finalize what that something is.

P.S. - I also assume the administration won't be standing outside with motivational/ pump-up music to cheer us on as we begin the first day of teaching, like they were this summer? Yeah, I guess not.