The Lost Community

At the beginning of the semester, I had a wonderful and developing relationship with my focus class’ students. There always seemed to be a balance between work and play, which made the classroom come to life. My kids seemed to be open with me, and everyday the majority of them would come rushing into the room to ask me how my day was going. After my outgoing student got the immediate attention they needed, I purposely asked by quieter students how they were doing; I wanted my kids to know that I cared. The community in my classroom was thriving (every teacher’s dream)!

After missing several days of school due to inclement weather, it seemed impossible to get back to the way things were. Every step I took forward, one particular student would push the class five steps backwards. This student would purposely try to start arguments with two other students (the only two students of color in my class). He clearly had a problem with them. After each inappropriate outbreak I would pull the student aside or verbally reprimand him during class; however, the two students that were targeted seemed to have the impression that I was fine with this behavior.

Like a volcano waiting to erupt, the two students’ harbored feelings came out during class. At this point the drama was starting to interfere with my students’ learning. I knew I had to get the facts (and my students) straight. During my “come to Jesus” meeting with the class,  I said my peace about targeting students and inappropriate outbursts, but from the looks on some of the kids faces they were going to forever be on guard while in this room. They clearly no longer looked forward to my class. I tried another attempt at explaining things with the two students after class, yet they still did not want to believe that I was on their side. They looked at me like I was alien when I said that I wanted them to tell me what they needed to feel comfortable in the class, and they rolled their eyes when I asked them to let me know if anymore issues with the other student occurred. Clearly these students did not have a great history with teachers following through with what they said.

Fast forward to the present:
My time student teaching is almost up. While the incident at the beginning of the year caused some good relationships to go sour, other relationships blossomed. The two students that were targeted (and of course their close friends) come dragging into class with evidence all on their faces  that they do not want to in the class. Despite my best effort, I have been “froze out”. This situation has truly been a wake-up call to me. I realized that I should have tried to handle things more aggressively when I first saw the situation forming. I cannot help thinking that if I had met with the two students earlier and tried to involve the counselors the end result would have been different. If I had done things differently there is no telling how awesome my classroom’s community could have been! I feel as though I failed my students this semester. I was not the teacher that I should have been for them, and I did not create a classroom environment that was welcoming to all. In the end, my students were the one’s that suffered. It was a hard lesson to learn (a very LONG lesson)! I know that going into my first year teaching, I will have a new lens with which to view situations, and I will have prior experience to use as a future resource. 

The Fine Line

“I mean no disrespect to you.”

These are the words a student to said to me this morning. I knew this student truly meant every word. From the beginning of the semester, he has always gone ‘above and beyond’ in my class. Every day he asks how my day is going; he is truly a sweet kid, and he is one that is extremely passionate about almost everything. It was no surprise when I learned that he would be participating in the student walk-out that was taking place this morning. He assured me that it had NOTHING to do with me personally, but that he felt he MUST participate in the walk-out.

My CT had informed me that any student that participates in the student walk-out must be given a discipline referral. This was a direct order from central office.

When the time came for the students to walk-out, he quietly exited the room. Although he was the only student to leave,  no one else in the class seemed to notice that he left.  When he returned to class, he immediately began working on his project again.

Personally, I respect the fact that this student felt strong enough about an issue to take a stand; however, I am experiencing some controversial feelings about writing a discipline referral. I understand that the school  cannot condone students leaving in the middle of class, but on the flip side, do these students have to receive a discipline referral if they quietly left the room and began working as soon as they returned? Yes this student was out of the room for an extended amount of time, but he still managed to complete ALL of the assignments. This is a fine line that I do not like to walk on.

A Cautionary Tale Come True

Last semester, I heard my collaborating teacher tell the story of when one of her former students took a screen shot of an essay from the internet and submitted it for an assignment. I laughed along with the kids at how ridiculous the story was! In my mind, I was thinking that it must have just been that one of student that would seriously try that. I thought maybe it was a lack of connection and respect between my collaborating teacher and the student. As time went on, I put this cautionary tale out of my mind. The first semester came and went, and I was very blessed to not have to experience a student plagiarizing. My naïve “MY students would never plagiarized” mindset came crashing down the third week of the second semester.

Here’s the Back Story:

I go to church in the same community that I am student teaching in. One of my students, in my focus class, goes to my church. He is also related to one of my closest friends. Since I knew this student’s personal life, I tried to be extra understanding of the fact that he didn’t have internet access at home. Overtime, I noticed that none of his assignments were being submitted. I sent an email to the student’s mother letting her know about the situation. She immediately responded that she would “take care of it” by taking him somewhere with internet so he could get his work done. Sure enough, I received a submission for the writing assignment the same evening. I thought all the problems were solved, but whenever I would try to view the assignment only a few pages would show up. I asked the student about it, he told me that it must not be loading all the way. He resubmitted the assignment again, and it did the same thing. Out of courtesy for this student, I waited until Friday afternoon to grade the paper, but I was determined to leave work without any papers to grade over the weekend. As I downloaded the paper to grade it, I noticed that the essay was a picture that was pasted into a word document. I knew then that he had cheated, but I needed official confirmation before I could report him to my CT. As I typed a section of “his” essay into google, my suspensions were confirmed; the website from which the essay immediately appeared. I then reported what I found to my CT, who began writing the discipline referral to the administrator. While she did the paper work, I had the pleasure of making “the” call home to his mom.

After the phone call ended, I remembered the story that I had pushed out of my head. I remembered how I laughed with disbelief at the story. I was shocked that a student that I thought I knew so well would display this type of behavior, but I guess he was just a kid after all. From that moment on,  I promised myself that I would listen and adhere to ALL the cautionary tales that teachers before me tell.

Not your typical day

Anyone that has ever taught a 9th grade class knows that having a normal day is almost next to impossible.

I had the lovely task of videoing my 9th grade focus class for edTPA. As my fellow teachers may know, preparing to video for edTPA takes some time. You have to make sure the camera is fully charged, and the angle is just right so the annoying kid (who also forgot to turn in the video permission slip form) is not in the view. It doesn’t matter how many times you video yourself teaching, having a camera “Big Brother” your every move is quite nerve-racking.

Everything was set. The kids started pouring into the room, and the show was about to begin. I began explaining the first activity to class. It was just your typical Tuesday. Well it WAS a typical day until I looked up to see one of my students without her shirt on. Of course she was RIGHT in front of the camera.

“What are you doing?” streamed from my mouth before I even really had time to process what was happening in front of me.

“I got hot.” The wide-eyed girl replied.

“SO!?! You ask for water or something. You don’t take your shirt off in the middle of class.” I automatically replied.

All I could think in my head was, “Well I can’t use that clip for edTPA.”  

I guess it was a typical ‘not-typical’ day as a 9th grade teacher.