Last Quarter Reflections

• Tornado warnings and actual tornadoes every day through April (but we're ok) 
• Flood warnings most of May (but we're ok)
• State testing and relocation to the gym for the whole day allowed for boredom and mild chaos. One fight errupted where a student punched out a special needs student. The senior starter on the basketball team intervened, but not on the student's half. The 6'3" center stood between the teacher and the instigating student, preventing the teacher from breaking up the fight. He stepped down eventually and was suspended for a day. But the coach let him hang out and play basketball in the gym instead of making him serve his suspension.
• My fellow geometry teacher and "sophomore class" sponsor was in charge of organizing and collecting money for the class trip. She kept the money under lock and key. While a female student was registering and while she had her cabinet unlocked, a male student approached her for some help on a geometry problem. Meanwhile, a third female student approached the desk for help. The first female student left. The male student asked to go to the bathroom and left. The thrid female student handed the teacher a dollar and said "So and so just walked out with all your money and this fell out of the envelope." One-thousand six-hundred dollars was stolen, $1,200 in cash. The administration watched the survelliance tape but couldn't pin point the perpetrator since the camera only covered the hallway and only at certain angles. The teacher filed a police report.
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• (Part 2) Cut to the end of the year: the school district deducted $1,200 without an official warning and no option for a payment plan from her last pay check. She has six kids. She is attempting to fight it.
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• I learned that RIF stands for "Reduction in Force," and that's because RIF letters went out to half the staff the Friday before spring break. Back story: the district is broke and was recently busted for misappropriation of special education funds. More letters were handed out than necessary. Some teachers have already been asked back. Within our math department, 2 of the teachers were RIF'ed, 1 is retiring, 3 are not returning, including me. That leaves 2 math teachers who are looking for work elsewhere. Would you like to have a class of 40+ students? Me neither.
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• I had a plush beanie-baby tiger doll that I received as a gift from another teacher. Within a day, it was lifted. I put up a little "LOST" sign that included a reward. Off the record, a student informed me the tiger was in another teacher's class room. I followed up with this teacher, very nice English teacher, and she described it to me perfectly. I said, "Yeah! That's it." She shook her head and said, "No... not anymore. The first day I saw it, it had all the whispies pulled off. The second day, it had been emptied of all its "beans." The third day, it was gone and I haven't seen it since." It's just a beanie baby, but someone gutted my beanie baby. And that was the end of that.
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• A couple of my pregnant students were really starting to show. Both of them are expecting boys in August. I saw this other student in the hall who I had for a little while the first semester. I had her transferred out of my class when I discovered she got off on making teachers cry. The day of our first test, she staged a mutiny, declaring, "You ain't never teach us this. We's all gonna fail. You can't control your class and ain't nobody learning anything up in here." When the whole class ganged in, I took her aside in the hallway, told her thanks for the advice, and then I passed the tests to everyone but her. "Ms. B., I didn't get no test," "I know. You don't feel like you've learned anything, so I don't think it's fair to test you. We'll arrange for tutoring after school and you can take it Monday." "Oh, it's ok, I was just playing, I'd like to take the test." I learned that day to make kids like her squirm for for a day. But I didn't know at the time and gave her the test anyway. Long story, short, she was a bitch the remainder of the time in my class, so I had her moved into another geometry class, and she was still a bitch to me in the hallway. Well fancy that I saw her on the last day of school and said hello out of habit. She smiled and humbly said, "Hi Mrs. B." It was the first time she had been anything close to civil. She was also 5-6 months along and showing considerably.
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• I told the class on the second to last day of school that I was expecting in December. I took a little poll of who thought it would be a boy vs. a girl. it was about tied, with a few extra votes under the "girl" column. I was going to work this into a percent math problem, out of X many students, what percent of the class thinks it's going to be a boy/girl, but I was greeted with, "Why we doing work? This is the only class we be doin' work in, Mrs. B. It's the end of the year, it's over." "But some of you don't have an A and still have to take the exam. And you don't want a daily grade of zero so close to the end to mess up your grade in this class..I didn't think so..." (I hate the test-exempt policy by the way; makes the last two weeks a joke instead of a strong finale. Kids still show up for the final exam who don't have to take it, and I give them stuff to color, while some students just walk the halls... not the best testing environment.) Doing any kind of math was considered "work." "You need to know how to do this" doesn't seem that important, so I'd have to resort to holding grades over people's heads, and that only works for the students who care about their grade. Some just want to pass, and even then don't put forth much effort.
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• I had some cute questions and comments when I shared the news of the baby bump in the form of a limmerick, "There once was a teacher named Mrs. B. And she happened to teach Geometry. But her students ended up teaching her about confidence, conviction, and character, and those are the things she'll teach her baby... Now, let's take a vote. Raise your hand if you think it'll be a boy..." That's when it registered, "Mrs. B, you pregnant?!" I had one student say, "Mrs. B's knocked up," and another student snapped, don't be talking about my teacher that way. Another student said, "You should name her after my middle name, Angel (pronounced "Ange-SHELLLL")... Angel Domonique Bergeron..." "Thank you, Erin" I told her, "I'll keep that one in mind." Another student was bummed when I announced I wouldn't be coming back next year. "Aww, Mrs. B.! But we want to see your belly get big." I make promises to visit with my big ol' belly. Another student said with total confidence, "it's going to be a girl." And then he asked me, "was he on top?" Other students asked:
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• -Was it a one-night stand? (No, I'm married)
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• -Does the baby daddy know? (Yes, he's my husband)
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• -How long were you trying? (I tried to make this a teachable moment to emphazise the fact that it didn't take long, so be smart, be selfish with your life, your goals, and don't be doing anything that would lead to a baby until you've had a chance to live your own life for a little while... this concept is totally lost on the half of my students who already have kids and whose momma's had them when they were teenagers...) Then the same student asked again, "But how long did it take?" All I could think of was the line from The Money Pit. "Two weeks. Next question."
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• I had a student who was terrible at math and condradicted almost all my instructions daily. He threw tests on the floor, didn't move or stop talking when asked, would sometimes just walk out. Sometimes, he would just look away and not respond to me at all. I've had issues with him since the second day of this past semester, even with pulling him out of another class to level with him one-on-one. Still nothing. Little successes along the way: he was extremely helpful without being asked when he wanted to be; he also agreed to stay after school a couple times when he really started falling behind so I've tutored him after school. On one afternoon when he was at risk of failing my class, he was all A-game. On another day, he said he was going to the bathroom, and then left and waited outside for his ride. When I saw him, I went outside, suggested we finish what we can until his ride arrives. Nope, not interested. While we talked outside, the sun was setting and the "no-see-ums" (flying, biting gnats) were beginning their twighlight feeding. We were both swatting them out of our faces as we talked. I said, "Don't stay out here. At least wait inside." Nope, not interested. He would rather swat pesky bugs out of his face. I had this revelation that the familiar is always easier than the unknown. Swatting bugs is at least familiar, while the Pythagorean Theorem takes some thinking.
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• (Part 2) I gave the students a quilting project to do while we were studying area. Many of them (high shool students mind you) were rusty on how to find the area of a square. I had to pull teeth with some of them to remember their perfect squares. That's when it's most painful to be a math teacher: when I take away the calculator and ask a high school senior what 7 x 7 is, and they look lost. "Well, 6 x 7 is 42, take it from there..." So part of the quilting project was the students designed one side on a piece of muslin. I provided them with a swatch of printed fabric to sew on the back; then, they stuffed it to make it a pillow. It was right before mother's day, so some of them made some nice messages like "I love you, Mom" and "Happy Mothersday (I didn't think to show them that Mother's Day is two words). My special student who preferred swatting gnats to solving the missing side of right triangles made this beautiful design. It was by far one of the best and most colorful. I told him as such, and asked if he was going to give it to his mom. "Naw, this is for my dog." Ok, that's great. I was just happy he completed an assignment on his own. It was then I realized for my special student, where math dropped him off, his artistic skills picked up. He went on to complete some lovely colored stained glass window patterns. Many of the students could do these when they finished their work early. His coloring was always a little more thoughtful and vibrant than anyone else's. He passed my class with his artistic contributions.
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• (Part 3) It was the last day of exams. My special student asked me, "Do you think you'll ever come back to teach here?" I said to him, "I'm not sure, but you'll be gone and graduated if I do..." And he said, "Yeah, but then I can still tell kids to ask for you because you're a good teacher."
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• Bleeding hearts of the world united in that moment. "Thanks, Don," I said. (This is the student who would be openly defiant and would look away whenever I asked him questions... until we started doing art.)
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• Overall, it was a good last term. 80% of the time, I loved my job. I adored 80% of the students and faculty, and felt most competent this past semester (or at least learned how to be satisfied with what I could accomlish with the limited resources I had). I stopped thinking it was my fault if they were acting up, and I stopped making it my crusade to help them recover all the learning gaps since Kindergarten.
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• But you need a smart, proactive administration, and they were, 80% of the time. And that's what we were lacking at the end of the year picnic. That sealed the deal for me for a polite but firm exit from Moss Point School District.
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• We had an end of the year picnic for all the 9th through 11th graders the last regular day of school before exams (not exactly exam-prep minded). No permission slips were gathered, no first aid tent was set up, and one garbage can was placed in the field for everyone to use throughout the picnic, scheduled from 10 am to 3:30. Two dollars was charged to each student for a ticket, but no one collected tickets (students were pissed). I was charged $5 to attend (to be a mandatory supervisor and to take part in the catered friedness, because nothing says finger-licking good like fried chicken and hot mac and cheese in the high heat of the day... should I throw up now or later).

Coming soon... more on the picnic and the teachers vs. students' softball game