Wednesday, January 11, 2006
and before school starts, i have dreams of being taken hostage
I went back to school Monday, after a nice, long winter break. My school is on a 4X4 Block schedule, which means that classes only last one semester. As a result, I returned to all new classes and all new students. Due to a shortage of teachers, I accepted a .25 this semester, which means that I have agreed to teach a class during my planning period. Last semester, another teacher used my classroom during my break, so I never got very much work done. This way, I figured I could at least have my own room all day. I was told that this would be a tenth grade class, which was fine, because I've taught tenth grade before.
On Friday, my department head sent me an email saying that there was a chance that they would switch my tenth grade class to a class of ninth grade repeaters. All weekend, I checked my email, but there was no word about the potential switch. This made me nervous. It is hard to feel ready and prepared when you have no idea what class you will be teaching. My only consolation was that I like the curriculum for both ninth and tenth grade, so, whichever grade I ended up with was fine with me. I just wanted to know.
When I left Monday morning, I told my husband that I was just hoping for the best. When I came home, he asked how things went and I just shook my head. "As bad as you could imagine it could have been....", I said. "It was worse."
On Monday morning, my new class schedule had me listed as teaching tenth grade. We are not given lists of students; we have to pull up the lists in our computerized attendance program and print each class roster out manually. When I opened my attendance program, I had a tenth grade class. I was a little hesitant when I noticed that there were thirty two names on the list (the legal class limit), but I figured I could manage.
Still, I am aware that things are not always totally organized, so I checked my email twice a period just in case there were any last minute changes.
By the time fourth period rolled around, I felt confident that I was, in fact, going to be teaching tenth grade. The bell rang and a few tenth graders started to come in and find seats. Then, the teacher who used my room last semester rolled his cart in. I looked at him. "I have a class this period", I said. "Did they put you in this room?" They had. It was a fixable problem, but still a bit confusing. He stood in the hall and instructed his students to wait outside while he found a new classroom.
In the meantime, my class quickly filling up. In fact, there were so many students, I ran out of desks. The bell rang and I went to close the door, only to see a group of about twenty-five junior and senior boys walking towards my class. They were looking at me as if they had every intention of entering my class. I gave them my very best don't-even-think-about-it teacher look.
"Who sent you here?", I asked. They told me the teacher's name and then, one of them held out his schedule. Sure enough, my name was listed as the teacher. The class on the schedules was ninth grade Literature and Composition (for repeaters). The only difference was that my room number was not on the schedule. Since tenth graders had the correct room number, and were on my computer schedule, I sent the ninth grader repeaters back to the room they came from and told them a teacher should show up.
I took a deep breath, and closed the door. Over seventy students had been scheduled to be in my room. I, personally, had been scheduled to teach two different classes of thirty-two students each. At the same time. But, it seemed to be under control. I was beginning to pass out course materials to my tenth graders when there was a knock on the door.
It was my department head. She was there to tell me that, actually, I was supposed to be teaching the ninth grade repeaters. Since I was already teaching three ninth grade classes, it seemed like a good idea to keep me with ninth grade all day long to save on my prep time. The tenth graders were ushered out, and a room full of ninth grader repeaters was ushered in.
Of course, I had no syllabus printed. Also, I had no idea what or how I was going to teach them.
While it is true that I have taught ninth grade for years, I've always taught actual ninth graders. Most of them are in the vicinity of fifteen years old. This semester, I am teaching all ninth grade honors. All of the honors kids are fourteen and fifteen. Almost all of them are girls.
My repeater class is a totally different story. There are thirty two students on the roll, but I have yet to see more than twenty two at one time. The class is made up largely of juniors and seniors, most of them are at least eighteen, and they are almost all boys (or, more accurately, men). I've never taught ninth grade literature to men before.
,
Yesterday, when I called roll, two students that had been there ever day previously were absent. The guys sitting next to them announced that they had both been locked up the day before. I stopped.
"What do you mean, 'locked up'?", I asked. He held his arms in front of him, wrists together in invisible handcuffs, and started singing Akon's song. I sighed. "Will they be back anytime soon?", I asked.
I was told, probably not.
Clearly, what works in actual ninth grade is not going to work with my fourth period class.
On Friday, my department head sent me an email saying that there was a chance that they would switch my tenth grade class to a class of ninth grade repeaters. All weekend, I checked my email, but there was no word about the potential switch. This made me nervous. It is hard to feel ready and prepared when you have no idea what class you will be teaching. My only consolation was that I like the curriculum for both ninth and tenth grade, so, whichever grade I ended up with was fine with me. I just wanted to know.
When I left Monday morning, I told my husband that I was just hoping for the best. When I came home, he asked how things went and I just shook my head. "As bad as you could imagine it could have been....", I said. "It was worse."
On Monday morning, my new class schedule had me listed as teaching tenth grade. We are not given lists of students; we have to pull up the lists in our computerized attendance program and print each class roster out manually. When I opened my attendance program, I had a tenth grade class. I was a little hesitant when I noticed that there were thirty two names on the list (the legal class limit), but I figured I could manage.
Still, I am aware that things are not always totally organized, so I checked my email twice a period just in case there were any last minute changes.
By the time fourth period rolled around, I felt confident that I was, in fact, going to be teaching tenth grade. The bell rang and a few tenth graders started to come in and find seats. Then, the teacher who used my room last semester rolled his cart in. I looked at him. "I have a class this period", I said. "Did they put you in this room?" They had. It was a fixable problem, but still a bit confusing. He stood in the hall and instructed his students to wait outside while he found a new classroom.
In the meantime, my class quickly filling up. In fact, there were so many students, I ran out of desks. The bell rang and I went to close the door, only to see a group of about twenty-five junior and senior boys walking towards my class. They were looking at me as if they had every intention of entering my class. I gave them my very best don't-even-think-about-it teacher look.
"Who sent you here?", I asked. They told me the teacher's name and then, one of them held out his schedule. Sure enough, my name was listed as the teacher. The class on the schedules was ninth grade Literature and Composition (for repeaters). The only difference was that my room number was not on the schedule. Since tenth graders had the correct room number, and were on my computer schedule, I sent the ninth grader repeaters back to the room they came from and told them a teacher should show up.
I took a deep breath, and closed the door. Over seventy students had been scheduled to be in my room. I, personally, had been scheduled to teach two different classes of thirty-two students each. At the same time. But, it seemed to be under control. I was beginning to pass out course materials to my tenth graders when there was a knock on the door.
It was my department head. She was there to tell me that, actually, I was supposed to be teaching the ninth grade repeaters. Since I was already teaching three ninth grade classes, it seemed like a good idea to keep me with ninth grade all day long to save on my prep time. The tenth graders were ushered out, and a room full of ninth grader repeaters was ushered in.
Of course, I had no syllabus printed. Also, I had no idea what or how I was going to teach them.
While it is true that I have taught ninth grade for years, I've always taught actual ninth graders. Most of them are in the vicinity of fifteen years old. This semester, I am teaching all ninth grade honors. All of the honors kids are fourteen and fifteen. Almost all of them are girls.
My repeater class is a totally different story. There are thirty two students on the roll, but I have yet to see more than twenty two at one time. The class is made up largely of juniors and seniors, most of them are at least eighteen, and they are almost all boys (or, more accurately, men). I've never taught ninth grade literature to men before.
,
Yesterday, when I called roll, two students that had been there ever day previously were absent. The guys sitting next to them announced that they had both been locked up the day before. I stopped.
"What do you mean, 'locked up'?", I asked. He held his arms in front of him, wrists together in invisible handcuffs, and started singing Akon's song. I sighed. "Will they be back anytime soon?", I asked.
I was told, probably not.
Clearly, what works in actual ninth grade is not going to work with my fourth period class.
