Then and Now
So in yesterday's posting I mentioned a small incident that occurred last year (around this time, I think...) when I taught a very special class composed of the 7th grade's worst behavior problems. They did not begin the year in that class, they were moved there in the fourth week to take them out from the other classes they were "destroying". We quickly learned that we had no idea what "destruction" could actually be until we rounded them all together, branded them with their room number - 447 - and shut the gates of the corral.
One was a gang leader.
One's mother was in jail for triple-homocide.
One was HIV+ because his mother injected him with a needle she'd used on herself.
One of them...Grace...simply beyond words. She'll get an posting all her own one day, not today. Grace is her real name, and you don't know what irony is until you know her.
These kids had serious problems, which is not to excuse them for making serious problems for their teachers, but we have to keep that at the back of our minds. We feel like assholes disciplining them when we know what's going on in their lives, but what can you do? Making allowances won't right past wrongs and it won't help them to a better future. And anyway, somethings are simply intolerable no matter who you are.
Example. One day I walked into the room to find the shades drawn and a certain mischievous buzz in the air. I shut the door, suspicious of everyone. Someone yelled out "LBHD" which I would later learn meant "Lights Books Hide Duck", a cue to turn out the lights, throw as many books as possible and hit whomever you could. It was in this way that I received a box of books to the back of my head. They were sorry for it -- no one meant anything by it -- and I accepted their apologies...eventually. What I could not accept was that the administration blamed me for this. "How could you let this happen? What could you have done differently?" To which I replied simply, "Um, not come into school today?" This was the conversation I had with Dr. Vendetta (not her real name, but it should be...I will use pseudonyms in this blog to protect the guilty and innocent alike, with the exception of Grace, cuz, like I said, irony...you need to know her name...)
That was the attitude of the administration last year: blame the teacher, never the student, and never EVER an administrator. She said I had no lesson planned. She was right: I was administering a citywide standardized test that took the entire period. No one had a lesson, that was it. But Dr. Vendetta was never too bright, even at covering her own ass. 447 was a bad idea, and she well knew it. She wore contacts that made her eyes look like cat eyes -- what self-respecting adult does that?
This year she's gone, a new administration is in place, and they too will get mentioned soon enough, but on the anniversary of those flying books, I think it's wise to reflect on what happened today, this year.
My class this year is not perfect, but they cleaned my room when I was absent last week and I promised them a pizza party if they did this. So today's lunch was pizza, paid for by me and very deliberately, not because I could actually afford it, but because it makes them beholden to me: Mr. W is willing to go out of his way for you, so you better appreciate it, punk! They needed to see that really good things could come their way at no cost to them if I get the behavior from them that I want. Classic conditioning.
But i took it a step further. I insisted that this would be a polite luncheon. You will use a napkin. You will wait until everyone is served before you eat. If you do not wish for any Hawaiian Punch, simply place your hand over your plastic cup. You will be served when you are seated and quiet.
They showed complete respect for my demands and even got into it. After our polite luncheon ended, they turned the radio on and danced and sang and were cast off their young adult demeanors to simply be kids again.
This is something I could not have achieved last year, something that, even when things are bad this year, will remind me that I have grown as a teacher, that I've earned my students trust and respect to a greater degree. Last year I left every day feeling dehumanized and humiliated. This year my little men and women raised their Pepsi and Hawaiian Punch in the air to toast me in thanks for the pizza and the sacrifice.
Things are looking up.
One was a gang leader.
One's mother was in jail for triple-homocide.
One was HIV+ because his mother injected him with a needle she'd used on herself.
One of them...Grace...simply beyond words. She'll get an posting all her own one day, not today. Grace is her real name, and you don't know what irony is until you know her.
These kids had serious problems, which is not to excuse them for making serious problems for their teachers, but we have to keep that at the back of our minds. We feel like assholes disciplining them when we know what's going on in their lives, but what can you do? Making allowances won't right past wrongs and it won't help them to a better future. And anyway, somethings are simply intolerable no matter who you are.
Example. One day I walked into the room to find the shades drawn and a certain mischievous buzz in the air. I shut the door, suspicious of everyone. Someone yelled out "LBHD" which I would later learn meant "Lights Books Hide Duck", a cue to turn out the lights, throw as many books as possible and hit whomever you could. It was in this way that I received a box of books to the back of my head. They were sorry for it -- no one meant anything by it -- and I accepted their apologies...eventually. What I could not accept was that the administration blamed me for this. "How could you let this happen? What could you have done differently?" To which I replied simply, "Um, not come into school today?" This was the conversation I had with Dr. Vendetta (not her real name, but it should be...I will use pseudonyms in this blog to protect the guilty and innocent alike, with the exception of Grace, cuz, like I said, irony...you need to know her name...)
That was the attitude of the administration last year: blame the teacher, never the student, and never EVER an administrator. She said I had no lesson planned. She was right: I was administering a citywide standardized test that took the entire period. No one had a lesson, that was it. But Dr. Vendetta was never too bright, even at covering her own ass. 447 was a bad idea, and she well knew it. She wore contacts that made her eyes look like cat eyes -- what self-respecting adult does that?
This year she's gone, a new administration is in place, and they too will get mentioned soon enough, but on the anniversary of those flying books, I think it's wise to reflect on what happened today, this year.
My class this year is not perfect, but they cleaned my room when I was absent last week and I promised them a pizza party if they did this. So today's lunch was pizza, paid for by me and very deliberately, not because I could actually afford it, but because it makes them beholden to me: Mr. W is willing to go out of his way for you, so you better appreciate it, punk! They needed to see that really good things could come their way at no cost to them if I get the behavior from them that I want. Classic conditioning.
But i took it a step further. I insisted that this would be a polite luncheon. You will use a napkin. You will wait until everyone is served before you eat. If you do not wish for any Hawaiian Punch, simply place your hand over your plastic cup. You will be served when you are seated and quiet.
They showed complete respect for my demands and even got into it. After our polite luncheon ended, they turned the radio on and danced and sang and were cast off their young adult demeanors to simply be kids again.
This is something I could not have achieved last year, something that, even when things are bad this year, will remind me that I have grown as a teacher, that I've earned my students trust and respect to a greater degree. Last year I left every day feeling dehumanized and humiliated. This year my little men and women raised their Pepsi and Hawaiian Punch in the air to toast me in thanks for the pizza and the sacrifice.
Things are looking up.
posted by phen at 6:58 PM
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