I am entering the last week of instruction before administering finals at the end of my first year of teaching. I guess we could call it teaching. Perhaps guard, cop, councilor, motivational speaker, nurse, or actor could describe my job more accurately, but I get paid for being a teacher. Nonetheless, as I tried to police my students into creating five paragraph essays about Romeo and Juliet, one of my favorite special needs students was the first to finish. In fact, somehow two of my "lower level" English students pounded out their essays before the rest of the class. Overall, I received four essays out of eleven students that semi-regularly attend my class numbering twenty three. Hopefully I will receive some more essays by the day grades are due.
Of those that I received, Enrique turned in my favorite. His analysis of what lead Romeo and Juliet to death is one of the more touching Shakespeare criticisms I have ever read. Structurally he really nails a five paragraph essay with Jane Schaffer paragraphs. Mechanically he struggles with punctuation, embedding quotations, sentence fragments, and subject-verb agreement. In the timeless, unquantifiable, stylistic edge of voice, Enrique really nails this one with his minimalist style, essentialist rhetoric, and poetic repetition. If I could ethically/legally post video of this student on one of his infamous monologues I would. He makes going to work worthwhile.
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet killed them self for love. Because Romeo was fighting for her. Because Juliet take that poison for she can act like she die for she don’t have to marry Paris. And the way they talk to each other. He said she speaks oh speak again bright angle! conclusion Romeo and Juliet love each other.
Romeo was fighting for her. Paris says, oh I’m killed. Romeo did not want Paris to marry Juliet so he killed him. You can tell Romeo loved her because he could of die fighting for her. He love her.
Juliet take that poison for she can act like she die for she don’t have to marry Paris. The stage direction says, ‘’he drinks the poison ‘’(pg243). It said it in the book. Juliet drink the poison to show Romeo she don’t want to marry Paris . she love him.
The way they talk to each other. He said she speaks oh, speak again bright angle. Romeo said, ‘’she’’ speaks oh, speak again bright angle. He is flirting with her. You can tell he love her because he trying to tell her that she is beautiful. They love each other.
Romeo and Juliet love each other. Because Romeo will kill for his love. Because Juliet act like she die for she don’t have to marry Paris because she love Romeo. Because Romeo said when she talks it turn him on. Finale at the end of it all they die
-Enrique R. AKA Big Willie
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
If I Had My Way I'd Tear This Building Down
Last Friday, all of the administrators in my building received notices of dismissal. They were to report to a Board of Education meeting for further notice as to whether they were being fired, transferred, or demoted. Tonight, the Board convened and decided to place "emergency" help in our school by adding two more principals. That would total three principals, one in charge of "climate," one in charge of "community," and one heading curriculum instruction. On top of our four vice principals (we started the year with six), one would hope we could provide a suitable school environment for our students to feel safe and our teachers to feel supported. Unfortunately, this will be the eleventh principal in ten years for our high school.
A veteran teacher that has advised and mentored me the past five months filled me in on the historic challenges of the High, the district, and the state, convinced that the Board of Education does not want our school to succeed. According to this teacher, it is in the Board's financial favor for our school to fail. The state runs the district from afar, and provides funding according to population size (we have 2000 on roll and 800 showing up), so the district gets more money for the number of students. This contributes to the "dumping" of students from "programs" (read prison), charter schools, and the other high school. We receive all students expelled form other schools. Perhaps this is one of the reasons behind our location at 316 out of 316 schools in our state. In fact, students have even been thrown out of elementary schools and ended up on our books due to "social promotion."
The second half of the district's motivation for ensuring failure is that as an Abbott school district, we receive funding proportional to our failure to meet standards. Supposedly more money can bring higher test scores because the more money we have, the smaller the class sizes can be and the more resources can be available. So, if we succeeded in academic progress the district would bring in less money. Now, in a city where three of the past five mayors are incarcerated for fraud and the supervisors of the schools are cycled through pending investigation after investigation, why would they want less money? Fraudulent redistribution of funds in our board of education depends upon the failure of our schools.
The effect is less money making it to the classroom, teachers burned out and frustrated, administrative rollover every year, and a different initiative every two or three months. We have burned through five state backed reform initiatives this year when such initiatives are supposed to last for three to five years. Nothing about this system empowers teachers or students. They would rather buy a new car than see their schools improve.
This latest shake down followed an interesting chain of events. The board told our school to undergo a drastic scheduling reform. A teacher called the state and complained. The board answered the call from the state and needed a scapegoat, so they tried to fire our principal. There is more going on here, and more history than can be elaborated upon here, but an essential crux to our problems remains constant: corrupt supervision. Welcome to public education. If I had my way, I'd tear that building down.
A veteran teacher that has advised and mentored me the past five months filled me in on the historic challenges of the High, the district, and the state, convinced that the Board of Education does not want our school to succeed. According to this teacher, it is in the Board's financial favor for our school to fail. The state runs the district from afar, and provides funding according to population size (we have 2000 on roll and 800 showing up), so the district gets more money for the number of students. This contributes to the "dumping" of students from "programs" (read prison), charter schools, and the other high school. We receive all students expelled form other schools. Perhaps this is one of the reasons behind our location at 316 out of 316 schools in our state. In fact, students have even been thrown out of elementary schools and ended up on our books due to "social promotion."
The second half of the district's motivation for ensuring failure is that as an Abbott school district, we receive funding proportional to our failure to meet standards. Supposedly more money can bring higher test scores because the more money we have, the smaller the class sizes can be and the more resources can be available. So, if we succeeded in academic progress the district would bring in less money. Now, in a city where three of the past five mayors are incarcerated for fraud and the supervisors of the schools are cycled through pending investigation after investigation, why would they want less money? Fraudulent redistribution of funds in our board of education depends upon the failure of our schools.
The effect is less money making it to the classroom, teachers burned out and frustrated, administrative rollover every year, and a different initiative every two or three months. We have burned through five state backed reform initiatives this year when such initiatives are supposed to last for three to five years. Nothing about this system empowers teachers or students. They would rather buy a new car than see their schools improve.
This latest shake down followed an interesting chain of events. The board told our school to undergo a drastic scheduling reform. A teacher called the state and complained. The board answered the call from the state and needed a scapegoat, so they tried to fire our principal. There is more going on here, and more history than can be elaborated upon here, but an essential crux to our problems remains constant: corrupt supervision. Welcome to public education. If I had my way, I'd tear that building down.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Walkin' the Ceiling
My last block of the day generally has low turnout, but has been slowly picking up. Roughly 14 of 25 students attend this block. When students try to walk in late, I ask them for passes, and if they do not have them, I tell them to come back with one. Regrettably, this results in students leaving school for the day. Sometimes I feel that I should let them into the room just to keep them out of worse possible situations outside of school.
This Wednesday I had about five students try to walk in over thirty minutes late, and I turned them away.
One student, Frederick, said, "Fine, I'm going home, later Mr. Cassidy."
I wished him well and continued the lesson. Twenty minutes later I heard my name called a few times and I looked around for the student asking questions. As I prepared to remind the class to raise their hands I noticed the student I had turned away hanging outside the window of my classroom shouting my name. I walked to the window that stands two stories above the ground, and peered out as the student hung precariously between scaffolding and my window.
"Mr. Cassidy, I came to class," he said.
"Do you have a pass Frederick?" I asked.
"No, I came to class!"
"I have to call Security Frederick, you are putting yourself in danger."
"But I came to class, Mr. Cassidy!"
Security came over the intercom with a five minute response time, the fastest yet, "Do you need security Mr. Cassidy?"
"Yes, there is a student on the outer wall of the building outside my window."
"What? Does he think he is superman?" asked the officer.
"Either that or spiderman."
After thinking about it, it kind of made my day. Sounds like something I would have done in high school.
I had forgotten about this occurrence until my brother and I realized that we had both had paper balls thrown at our backs while teaching this week. That memory triggered the superheroric antics that happened in the same class a few days later.
This Wednesday I had about five students try to walk in over thirty minutes late, and I turned them away.
One student, Frederick, said, "Fine, I'm going home, later Mr. Cassidy."
I wished him well and continued the lesson. Twenty minutes later I heard my name called a few times and I looked around for the student asking questions. As I prepared to remind the class to raise their hands I noticed the student I had turned away hanging outside the window of my classroom shouting my name. I walked to the window that stands two stories above the ground, and peered out as the student hung precariously between scaffolding and my window.
"Mr. Cassidy, I came to class," he said.
"Do you have a pass Frederick?" I asked.
"No, I came to class!"
"I have to call Security Frederick, you are putting yourself in danger."
"But I came to class, Mr. Cassidy!"
Security came over the intercom with a five minute response time, the fastest yet, "Do you need security Mr. Cassidy?"
"Yes, there is a student on the outer wall of the building outside my window."
"What? Does he think he is superman?" asked the officer.
"Either that or spiderman."
After thinking about it, it kind of made my day. Sounds like something I would have done in high school.
I had forgotten about this occurrence until my brother and I realized that we had both had paper balls thrown at our backs while teaching this week. That memory triggered the superheroric antics that happened in the same class a few days later.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Laughing to Keep From Crying
On difficult days at the High, one of the highlights can be watching students sneak back into the school after leaving school grounds. Two other teachers and I share a prep period in an open room overlooking a grass lawn fenced off for safety. Here students sneak out, go to the park across the street, (get high), and abysmally attempt to sneak back in. They trip over the fence and get stuck between loose poles. They fall flat on their faces, rip clothing, and lose hats. Eventually they try every locked door along the side of the school hoping to get in. This fails every time unless a student in the halls sees them and lets them in through a door unlocked for emergencies.
Looking on from above we sit in our classroom narrating the students’ advances, providing dialogue, asides, and soliloquies for this comedy of errors.
“Oh, there goes his hat!”
“Well, those jeans just got a little baggier…”
“Oh man, what if we don’t get back inside in time for lunch?”
Sometimes the chaos, absurdity, and utter disorganization of the High become a constancy we take comfort in. The consistency of inconsistency.
A veteran teacher told me to keep track of the things in the beginning that seemed abnormal because they would become routine before I knew it.
I think about the leak in my roof. The teacher that had the room before me said it had been leaking for two years. I hardly even notice it anymore.
Looking on from above we sit in our classroom narrating the students’ advances, providing dialogue, asides, and soliloquies for this comedy of errors.
“Oh, there goes his hat!”
“Well, those jeans just got a little baggier…”
“Oh man, what if we don’t get back inside in time for lunch?”
Sometimes the chaos, absurdity, and utter disorganization of the High become a constancy we take comfort in. The consistency of inconsistency.
A veteran teacher told me to keep track of the things in the beginning that seemed abnormal because they would become routine before I knew it.
I think about the leak in my roof. The teacher that had the room before me said it had been leaking for two years. I hardly even notice it anymore.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
What Are They Doing in Heaven Today?
"I don't know boy but it is my business to find out...."
“Learning begins with the Fear of the Lord” reads a mural on the wall of our high school’s auditorium. I didn’t know the religious fervor I would encounter, but the ‘fear of the lord’ has permeated our classroom, our staff assemblies, our morning announcements, and our beginning of the year orientation where we, as a staff, sang:
(3x)
I need you,
You need me
We’re all apart of God’s body
Stand with me agree with me
We’re all apart of God’s body
It is his will that every need be supplied
You are important to me I need you to survive
(7times)
I pray for you
You pray for me
I love you I need you to survive
I won’t harm you with words from my mouth
I love you I need you to survive
It is his will that every need be supplied
You are important to me I need you to survive!
I guess I underestimated the power of God in our public schools. As I stifled my child-in-church giggles of bewilderment, my co-worker said, “At least they didn’t march us downtown to go to church this year.” Perhaps this happens at all jobs. Maybe this is Bush’s payment plan for “No Child Left Behind.” Regardless, it was reassuring to leave that revival only to witness a red-faced teacher threaten to kill another teacher if he ever touched his stuff.
....
I now live within a brief walk to Reverend Charles Tindley’s Methodist Church on Broad Street in Philadelphia. The father of American Gospel, he penned “I Shall Overcome” (later “we”), “By and By (I’m going to see the Lord)”, “Stand by Me,” and “Nothing in Between.” He also wrote the song for which this post is titled, which I became familiar with after the Mississippi Records release of Washington Phillips, the dulceola (or fretless zither?) master. Phillips is also available on CD from JSP record’s compilation Spreading the Word: Early Gospel Recordings (B).
“Learning begins with the Fear of the Lord” reads a mural on the wall of our high school’s auditorium. I didn’t know the religious fervor I would encounter, but the ‘fear of the lord’ has permeated our classroom, our staff assemblies, our morning announcements, and our beginning of the year orientation where we, as a staff, sang:
(3x)
I need you,
You need me
We’re all apart of God’s body
Stand with me agree with me
We’re all apart of God’s body
It is his will that every need be supplied
You are important to me I need you to survive
(7times)
I pray for you
You pray for me
I love you I need you to survive
I won’t harm you with words from my mouth
I love you I need you to survive
It is his will that every need be supplied
You are important to me I need you to survive!
I guess I underestimated the power of God in our public schools. As I stifled my child-in-church giggles of bewilderment, my co-worker said, “At least they didn’t march us downtown to go to church this year.” Perhaps this happens at all jobs. Maybe this is Bush’s payment plan for “No Child Left Behind.” Regardless, it was reassuring to leave that revival only to witness a red-faced teacher threaten to kill another teacher if he ever touched his stuff.
....
I now live within a brief walk to Reverend Charles Tindley’s Methodist Church on Broad Street in Philadelphia. The father of American Gospel, he penned “I Shall Overcome” (later “we”), “By and By (I’m going to see the Lord)”, “Stand by Me,” and “Nothing in Between.” He also wrote the song for which this post is titled, which I became familiar with after the Mississippi Records release of Washington Phillips, the dulceola (or fretless zither?) master. Phillips is also available on CD from JSP record’s compilation Spreading the Word: Early Gospel Recordings (B).
Monday, October 13, 2008
Before You Accuse Me
Courage. Being a high school student requires courage. Given all of the distractions facing students at my school on any given day, it takes courage for many of them just to show up. One appropriate example is a student showing up to school after two days of absence without explanation. He never missed class before then, and I began to worry about him. Nevertheless, on the Friday of our first pep rally, he returned to stand in the bleachers and bare his "RIP" banner for a loved one recently deceased. He did not have to be at school, and he was obviously having a hard time. Still, he came to school. He came back and continues to return.
Students return after getting jobs, attending funerals, sleepless nights watching siblings, disputes with their parents, and any number of other events that characterize adolescent development. It just seems that they don’t necessarily know how to turn this determination and courage into success according to the rules and expectations in my classroom.
I know that if a student walks into my room, they want to learn. They may not know how to express that or act that out, but they want to learn. So I know that when I fail to get their attention, or I lose their interest, I have not capitalized on their determination and courage. Their attendance alone is the biggest difference between success and failure.
Some of my “smartest” students cut class the most. Some of my “smartest” students are my biggest behavioral challenges.
I want to know how to channel this energy, determination, and courage into academic success.
Students return after getting jobs, attending funerals, sleepless nights watching siblings, disputes with their parents, and any number of other events that characterize adolescent development. It just seems that they don’t necessarily know how to turn this determination and courage into success according to the rules and expectations in my classroom.
I know that if a student walks into my room, they want to learn. They may not know how to express that or act that out, but they want to learn. So I know that when I fail to get their attention, or I lose their interest, I have not capitalized on their determination and courage. Their attendance alone is the biggest difference between success and failure.
Some of my “smartest” students cut class the most. Some of my “smartest” students are my biggest behavioral challenges.
I want to know how to channel this energy, determination, and courage into academic success.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Double Trouble
Overall, my students are very intelligent people. They prove their intelligence and courage every day they show up to class. First of all, no person makes it to fifteen-years-old without being intelligent. Second of all, if experience is our best teacher, then these students should be teaching me. My struggle as their teacher is to meet them with the intellectual stimulation an intelligent fifteen-year old deserves while providing the skills they need to improve their third grade reading and writing levels. I am frequently balancing this disparity while attempting to provide the students alternative means for expressing their various literacies.
Conveniently, English skills are spiraling, and therefore the skills they practiced in third grade are the same skills we must practice in ninth grade. Inconveniently, we often struggle with the deeper comprehension that ninth grade skills demand. In a sense, it is like teaching an adult English Language Learner. Such students have complex and intelligent questions and opinions, but they lack the vocabulary to express them.
Conveniently, English skills are spiraling, and therefore the skills they practiced in third grade are the same skills we must practice in ninth grade. Inconveniently, we often struggle with the deeper comprehension that ninth grade skills demand. In a sense, it is like teaching an adult English Language Learner. Such students have complex and intelligent questions and opinions, but they lack the vocabulary to express them.
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