Thanks to all the wonderful and nice people who commented on the my previous posts.
To Val and Miss A: I have no idea when this whole "get the teacher fired" stuff started. When I student taught the Juniors kept bragging how they went through 5 (yes, 5!) teachers in a year. When I was in school, I was too scared of my teachers to try stuff like that. Also, why would kids want to ruin people's lives? I really don't understand the attitude at all.
To Miss A: History teachers, based on just leaving here, in Texas are much better than the ones back home. I kinda forgot to say that. Since social studies is tested on the state test, we do take it a bit more seriously. However, on the last benchmark test, 90% of the kids flunked the test.
I am sitting here tonight very disheartened and knowing I cannot stay at this my school forever unless things really, really change. I write blog posts to vent and I have just been sticking them in draft on my blog account because I cannot publicly say what is going on here. But, all I know, by this time next year, I will be getting ready to leave this school and it makes me profoundly sad. When you put so much effort and time into things and people, it hurts to leave. But I am going to give one more year...I'm just psyching myself for the inevitable job search.
But the kids have been so great this year. I have a baseball playing extremely deficent in English student. I taught him when he was a freshman and I am teaching him again this year. He has been so gung-ho about doing everything in my class and getting it done right. He is always asking about his grade, whether he is going to pass TAKS, whether I think he's smart, so on and so on.
I just laugh. He reminded me today of when he was a freshman and made him come in after school everyday. I had this great idea that the freshmen needed to learn to do a research paper. Crazy idea, huh? Student learning to write and research. Huh! Little do I know. The kids freaked. Most of them did anyway. And it was a
group research paper. They did not even have to do all the work themselves.
Well, this was before I realized high school freshmen students need everything broken down into tiny little steps or they will freak. Oh, and you do not tell them the end product because then they will not do the steps (oh important ones, like research your topic or pick a topic) in between.
Some students thought since they were working in a group, they did not have to. My little baseball player was one of them. I kept noticing he would be surfing the internet, not related to any topic he was supposed to research. He did nothing to help. I kept trying to redirect him to help his group but he just ignored me.
When time rolled around to assign grades to the groups for the papers, I told him he got a zero. Which results in him failing English 1 and not being able to play the next six weeks. I told his coach the only way I would give him a grade if he came in after school every day for a week and did the assignment in class.
And he did. And he was not happy about it. He still reminds me of it today.
I remind him how much he has grown up in two years. Now he is constantly on my case about his grade, does all his work, makes it up when he is gone for a game, and tries very hard in my class.
Now, his little brother is a freshman. The two have the same name. I don't get it. So one day I asked little brother why his parents named the two brothers the same name.
Little brother says, "I don't know, miss. It was my Grandpa's and Dad's name. So they just called us that."
Me: "Oh, so it is like, Here's my brother Darrell and my other brother Darrell."
(Think old Newhart show.)
Little brother, very slowly, "Noooo, Missssss, there are noooo broootherssss Darrell."
I always forget these kids have no American TV.
PS: The guy who introduced his brother Darrell and his other brother Darrell was on LOST last week. I nearly peed my pants.
Of course, when is there a time on LOST you don't feel like peeing your pants in anticipation. ....
Oh, really, maybe it's just me.
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