My Teaching Experiences

I enjoyed this week. I don’t know if I enjoyed it because it was short (it’s already Friday, but it’s only Thursday!) or because things just seemed to go well.

Monday I showed the film – well, the first thirty minutes of the film. I think that in graduate classes I had the fear of God put into me by professors that if I allow students to just watch a movie and not hold them accountable for anything then they’ll just sleep through the film. One professor was adamant about not allowing students to watch more than three minutes of film at a time before stopping the film and having them complete some form of activity. I allowed the film to run through for half an hour, but did have them turn in an assignment on five differences between the film and the book. At first, I was a little concerned about five – it was an arbitrary choice, really. However, there are a ton of differences, many of which most of my students had no problem locating. The only problem with showing the introduction of the film is that every day for the rest of the week, students asked me if we were watching more of the film – even though I told them on Monday that we would be watching it periodically throughout, not all at once and most certainly not all the way through when we had only read six chapters of the book. I think it’s just because they see movie watching as easier and therefore preferred.

Tuesday Paul came to our classroom – he’s with the writer in the school program. The students really seemed to enjoy his activity, as they do every week. On Wednesday, they begged me to put that day’s activity off until the next day so that they could work on their writings from Tuesday. This may seem quite positive, but I’m not so sure it is…Do they really like Paul coming that much? Or do they see his classroom visits as a welcome respite from the rest of their lifeless, meaningless, stupid English work? I have a hunch it may be the latter.

Wednesday I played chapters 7-8 on tape. I fear that we may be falling behind in the reading – especially since I lose one day a week to Paul and both this week and next week the students have an extra day off, leaving me with two straight weeks of only three teaching days. The tape captured their attention immediately and held them for the entire period. Today, students told me that they remembered everything from the tape far better than if they had just read it on their own, which confirms my suspicion that I have a hefty number of auditory learners in my classes.

Today they worked on an activity that helped them better understand the relationships emerging between characters in the novel. I worry that they aren’t seeing the significance of these relationships and the way that the relationships are developing over time – especially since we’ve just finished reading about the second winter in Maycomb. It has been a year and a half in this novel and many of my students still think Scout is a little boy and don’t realize that she’s now a seven-year-old kid in second grade. They’re overlooking the significance of Atticus being middle-aged and the fact that Miss Maudie (who many of them still call Miss Mao-die), even though we seldom see her, plays a significant role in their daily lives. One student told me today that Scout and Jim [sic] are afraid of Boo because he has fangs and eats people. I asked him if that was true or just rumored. He stated that it was definitely true, that Boo really did eat people. I tell them over and over again that all the information they learn about every facet of life in this novel is told from the perspective of a small girl – not an educated, trustworthy, adult narrator. I don’t know if they just don’t listen or if they forget. The activity today, though, really seemed to help. There wasn’t someone all day who didn’t work with their group to find answers and suggest events as supporting evidence. I really feel like a lot of students got it today – or got at least a little bit. This activity went so very well and I felt tremendous about it all day long. It’s true, I am worried some about not being on a good pace with the reading, but I think that the activity today paved the way for us to continue in a productive fashion. Plus, I didn’t really want to send them away for a four-day weekend on a new chapter without reinforcing some of the reading thus far.

After school today, K---- and I submitted grades for progress reports. She said not to worry about spending a lot of time commenting on the progress reports (she does spend the time at report card time) – just to comment on students who have a D or F. I made sure to leave a comment on K----’s, however, letting her parents know that even though she’s still passing, she doesn’t spend her time in class wisely. Her boyfriend is in the same class and that causes problems. When she’s not talking and goofing off with C---- (the bf), she’s talking and goofing off with G----. I guess she used to be a good student and this year she’s taken a u-turn. Her writing is good, but it seems like she’s more interested in getting attention from boys, which makes me wonder how much attention she gets at home. I also left the comment “Pleasure to have in class” for C---- because, for one, he really is a pleasure to have in class, and for two, I don’t want his progress report to be filled with only negative comments.

This brings me to two other things: other teachers’ negativity and K----’s bell curve needs.

First, other teachers’ negativity. I feel like I’m surrounded by negative people all the time. In our team meetings every morning we bring up different kids. There are two male teachers on my team who constantly bring up the negative things about those kids: he hasn’t turned in anything all week, she failed my test, he’s been tardy twice, she already has a referral. If they do mention anything positive at all, it’s with surprise – unless, of course, it’s from a “good” kid, from whom you would suspect nothing but clearly good and tidy behavior. So I bring up how he did the assignment in my class and she received a C on my quiz and how he participates in discussion and how she always comes with her book, even if that was what made her tardy. They don’t pay me the time of day. They just don’t care. They hear what I say and then go back to the negative comments, the destructive comments. We have known in the social sciences for more than a hundred years that people respond far better to positive stimuli and rewards than to negative stimuli and punishment. So why waste time sitting around talking about all the things the kids are doing wrong? Why focus on everything they do that displeases the ever-important grown-up? We should be utilizing their strengths to help them succeed, not avoiding them for their difficult behaviors.

And it occurs to me now that all I’ve done is complain about my team – exactly what I wish they would do less of with the students. They are a fun bunch, even if I think some (many) of their jokes are inappropriate in a work setting and contradict the sexual harassment guidelines. They get along well and seem to support each other openly. They have finally come around to including me in their discussions and one in specific makes sure to fill me in on back stories. Also, they’ve made a list of students they want to bring in to talk with about grades and classroom behaviors, which I think is a positive and proactive move, even though I am worried that these meetings will focus on the students’ negative behaviors. I hope to be the one positive light in those meetings and plan to, despite all else that may happen, focus on the individual student’s strengths.

And for K----’s love of the bell curve…At least, that what it seems to be. She insists that there must be a variety of grades in each class, and actively scans them on a daily basis to ensure that there’s a spread representation of grades A-F in each period. I told her that I thought it better to have more As because that meant that more students are learning the material better, but she insisted that in order to have an accurate representation of what happens in the classroom – with students turning in work to how productive they are in class – you must have all grades equally represented. I firmly disagree, and that’s difficult, but I suppose for now, while I’m in her classroom, I mustn’t fight it.