This blog is about what it is like to teach in a ghetto school, and more specifically what it is like for a substitute teacher to do this.
The school where I am a substitute teacher is fairly large -- 2000 students ? -- and has a student body about 80% African-American. Perhaps another 15 percent are Hispanic, and the remainder is divided between Asaians and Caucasians.
Make no mistake about it, it is a ghetto school. Most of the students come from poor families, many of them one-parent families, and most probably families from which no one has ever been to college. The kids wear what I have come to regard as a "uniform."
The boys wear extremely baggy jeans with embroidered pockets and sometimes embrodery decorating other areas of the pants. These pants are worn very low. One can usually see an expanse of brightly colored underwear showing at the top of the student's butt. The pants are also so long that the wearer unavoidably walks now and then on the cuffs, which quickly become ragged and frayed. The tops are usually very loose-fitting, sweatshirt-like jerseys. In short, the boys dress "gangsta-style." It is clear that most students who wear other types of clothing are considered "out of it" nerds.
The girls usually dress in very tight-fitting jeans, lots of costume jewelry, and tight T-shirts that show off how sexy they can be. The variety of hairdos is nothing less than staggering, with lots of braids, lots of weaves (artificial or real hair from someone else, hair added to what the wearer actually possesses).
In visiting some African-American friends a month ago, I was told that the school is so "ghetto" that they would not allow their own children to attend it, and instead sent them to private school.
This, then, is part of the setting of the stories I have to tell.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
What Substitutes Need On The Job
Today, as a substitute teacher, not an "intervention specialist," I had a wonderful day. The classes went well, I only had to write up two kids in five periods, and time passed quickly. What made this especially surprising and welcome was the fact that almost without exception the students were all ninth graders. Ninth graders are extremely immature and are most likely to misbehave.
What made the day a great one was primarily the organization and preparation of the teacher I subbed for. Not only had he left clear instructions, but there were a series of pages, one per class, that had small photos and names of the students. The students take advantage of the fact that a substitute does not know their identity. If the substitute doesn't know the name of any given student, he or she has a much more difficulty time holding any student accountable for bad behavior.
Without identification, a sub cannot leave a note for the regular teacher about who has misbehaved -- or, for that matter, about who did really well and contributed to the class. Without identification, a sub's reprimands, instructions and orders are less likely to stick. Without identification for a write-up slip, a student cannot be written up unless the sub returns the following day, speaks with the regular teacher, and identifies the misbehaving student. The name has to be on the write-up slip along with the student's grade level (ninth grade, tenth grade, etc.), the date, the time of the student's misbehavior and the substitute's signature.
Because of the picture sheets the teacher had left for me, I was able to call several students by name when they were beginning to get out of hand -- chasing each other, taking each other's belongings, etc -- and make them return to their regular seats.
To be most effective, a substitute needs, among other things, a way of identifying each student (rarely supplied), write-up slips, and work to be passed out to the students that must be completed during the class period and turned back in to the substitute BY THE END OF THE PERIOD. The amount of work must be sufficient to occupy the students for most of the period. You would be surprised to know that most teachers leave so little classwork that students can complete it in 10 to 15 minutes. The students normally don't even start their classwork until the last fifteen minutes of the period. They spend most of the class time talking, texting on their phones, and misbehaving.
The idea that a substitute teacher might actually teach doesn't match the actualities of the situation. If a substitute tries to teach, the students normally won't listen. There may be a small group of students who are serious enough to want to learn something, but these are far and few between. In fact, a substitute teacher is more a babysitter than a teacher.
It isn't possible to make student do classwork. A substutute teacher cannot force any student to do anything other than, perhaps, to sit down or stop hitting his or her peers. All the substitute can do is to urge students to do their classwork, write them up if they misbehave, or send them to the Vice-Principal's office.
When a student is written up, what normally happens is that the substitute phones the main office to send someone from Security to the classroom. The Security representative then takes the student and the substitute's write-up slip to a Vice-Principal, and leaves the student and the slip there. If too many students are sitting outside the Vice-Principal's office, they are sometimes told to return to their classroom. Otherwise, the Vice-Principal has a chat with them and decises what, if any, disciplinary action needs to be taken. Sometimes this is just a talking to, sometimes a suspension.
I started this blog entry by saying that today I had a relatively good day. What made it better than usual was the simple fact that their regular teacher had left a way for me to identify the students, and thus they knew that they were accountable for their actions.
What made the day a great one was primarily the organization and preparation of the teacher I subbed for. Not only had he left clear instructions, but there were a series of pages, one per class, that had small photos and names of the students. The students take advantage of the fact that a substitute does not know their identity. If the substitute doesn't know the name of any given student, he or she has a much more difficulty time holding any student accountable for bad behavior.
Without identification, a sub cannot leave a note for the regular teacher about who has misbehaved -- or, for that matter, about who did really well and contributed to the class. Without identification, a sub's reprimands, instructions and orders are less likely to stick. Without identification for a write-up slip, a student cannot be written up unless the sub returns the following day, speaks with the regular teacher, and identifies the misbehaving student. The name has to be on the write-up slip along with the student's grade level (ninth grade, tenth grade, etc.), the date, the time of the student's misbehavior and the substitute's signature.
Because of the picture sheets the teacher had left for me, I was able to call several students by name when they were beginning to get out of hand -- chasing each other, taking each other's belongings, etc -- and make them return to their regular seats.
To be most effective, a substitute needs, among other things, a way of identifying each student (rarely supplied), write-up slips, and work to be passed out to the students that must be completed during the class period and turned back in to the substitute BY THE END OF THE PERIOD. The amount of work must be sufficient to occupy the students for most of the period. You would be surprised to know that most teachers leave so little classwork that students can complete it in 10 to 15 minutes. The students normally don't even start their classwork until the last fifteen minutes of the period. They spend most of the class time talking, texting on their phones, and misbehaving.
The idea that a substitute teacher might actually teach doesn't match the actualities of the situation. If a substitute tries to teach, the students normally won't listen. There may be a small group of students who are serious enough to want to learn something, but these are far and few between. In fact, a substitute teacher is more a babysitter than a teacher.
It isn't possible to make student do classwork. A substutute teacher cannot force any student to do anything other than, perhaps, to sit down or stop hitting his or her peers. All the substitute can do is to urge students to do their classwork, write them up if they misbehave, or send them to the Vice-Principal's office.
When a student is written up, what normally happens is that the substitute phones the main office to send someone from Security to the classroom. The Security representative then takes the student and the substitute's write-up slip to a Vice-Principal, and leaves the student and the slip there. If too many students are sitting outside the Vice-Principal's office, they are sometimes told to return to their classroom. Otherwise, the Vice-Principal has a chat with them and decises what, if any, disciplinary action needs to be taken. Sometimes this is just a talking to, sometimes a suspension.
I started this blog entry by saying that today I had a relatively good day. What made it better than usual was the simple fact that their regular teacher had left a way for me to identify the students, and thus they knew that they were accountable for their actions.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Student at the Mall
I have not described the six weeks I spent teaching some special education students just before I had to stop teaching for a while and have a hip replacement operation. I have been shying away from this because aspects of it are too painful both psychologically and physically. During these six weeks my physical condition went downhill rapidly. First I was able to stand up and walk around class with relative ease, though with a lot of pain. Finally I could scarcely get from my car into the school building, and I spent the day in one of the classroom chairs that had wheels. I used to wheel around the room while I taught these kids. And at last I had to call the school one morning and tell them that even on Vicodin the pain had become so great that I could no longer teach until after I had had the operation and had recovered.
One of my students was an African-American young man whom I shall call M, a seriously disturbed student with a terrible anger management problem. He had great difficulty sitting in one place for more than a few minutes. He and I talked and he told me this and a few other things about himself. He had spent time not long before in Juvenile Hall. Sometimes if told to stop talking to other students, he would fly into a rage and kick the chairs. Several times I had to write him up and have him taken to the office.
One of the things he told me a number of times was that he could only learn things if he had a special tutor. Near the end of the six weeks I think he started being tutored after school. I might have tried to do this myself but at that point I was in no physical condition to add more hours to my school day.
Yesterday while I was shopping in a mall not far from home, a young man whom I suddenly recognized as M approached me. He was very friendly, and in the two or three minutes we spoke I asked him if he was being tutored the way he wanted to be. He was not. Furthermore, he had been transferred to another school much closer to his home. He told me he was failing everything. He said this not with pride, not as though he were bragging, but just in a matter-o-fact fashion, as though he was used to total failure and accepted it.
With M.'s has deep psycholoical problems, I can predict terrible things in his future. Sooner or later he will end up in prison, in some psychiatric facility, or dead -- probably shot by police. The system will grind him into little pieces and spit him out because no one seems to be helping him.
He reminds me of a bizarre incident that happened to someone else, another African-American I knew. This fellow, in his early forties, had become so high on drugs that he was found wandering around on the streets at 2 a.m. Eventually that night he had an encounter with the police in which he was shot dead while standing half-naked atop a parked authomobile.
With me, if M. encounters the police, I don't think it will have anything to do with drugs. I think it will have to do with his anger. And the police will not understand that what they have before them is an emotionally-disturbed kid who in many ways is not responsible for his own behavior. They will see him as nothing more than a criminal.
As we stood there in the mall, M. asked if he could have my phone number -- "Or maybe you would want to have mine." As a teacher, I do not know whether or not I am even allowed to become involved in a student's life outside school. I have tried hard not to. Nevertheless, I gave this kid my card with my phone number on it. I don't know if he will ever need to call, but this probably cemented something he felt before I had to stop teaching his class -- that despite his disciplinary and anger problems, I liked and accepted him.
One of my students was an African-American young man whom I shall call M, a seriously disturbed student with a terrible anger management problem. He had great difficulty sitting in one place for more than a few minutes. He and I talked and he told me this and a few other things about himself. He had spent time not long before in Juvenile Hall. Sometimes if told to stop talking to other students, he would fly into a rage and kick the chairs. Several times I had to write him up and have him taken to the office.
One of the things he told me a number of times was that he could only learn things if he had a special tutor. Near the end of the six weeks I think he started being tutored after school. I might have tried to do this myself but at that point I was in no physical condition to add more hours to my school day.
Yesterday while I was shopping in a mall not far from home, a young man whom I suddenly recognized as M approached me. He was very friendly, and in the two or three minutes we spoke I asked him if he was being tutored the way he wanted to be. He was not. Furthermore, he had been transferred to another school much closer to his home. He told me he was failing everything. He said this not with pride, not as though he were bragging, but just in a matter-o-fact fashion, as though he was used to total failure and accepted it.
With M.'s has deep psycholoical problems, I can predict terrible things in his future. Sooner or later he will end up in prison, in some psychiatric facility, or dead -- probably shot by police. The system will grind him into little pieces and spit him out because no one seems to be helping him.
He reminds me of a bizarre incident that happened to someone else, another African-American I knew. This fellow, in his early forties, had become so high on drugs that he was found wandering around on the streets at 2 a.m. Eventually that night he had an encounter with the police in which he was shot dead while standing half-naked atop a parked authomobile.
With me, if M. encounters the police, I don't think it will have anything to do with drugs. I think it will have to do with his anger. And the police will not understand that what they have before them is an emotionally-disturbed kid who in many ways is not responsible for his own behavior. They will see him as nothing more than a criminal.
As we stood there in the mall, M. asked if he could have my phone number -- "Or maybe you would want to have mine." As a teacher, I do not know whether or not I am even allowed to become involved in a student's life outside school. I have tried hard not to. Nevertheless, I gave this kid my card with my phone number on it. I don't know if he will ever need to call, but this probably cemented something he felt before I had to stop teaching his class -- that despite his disciplinary and anger problems, I liked and accepted him.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Student Misbehavior # 2
I can't decide if some students really believe substitutes are dumb and don't notice what goes on in the classroom, or whether they just don't care.
What brings this to mind is an experience I had with a Tongan student last week.
I have a special affinity with Polynesian students because I spent a year in Samoa, have been back there several dozen times, and have written about aspects of Polynesian culture. In the case of Tonga, I have visited all three of this nation's island areas -- Tongatapu (the main island), Vava'u, and Ha'apai.
I have had a particular young Tongan lady in several different classes. Last week when I had the same four classes every day for five days she was in one of these classes, too. Like most though not all Tongan and Samoan young people, she has an impressive size. I have exchanged a few words in Tongan with her -- Malo e lelei (hello) -- now and then.
She must surely know that I notice her and know her name.
Last week we had a series of wonderful presentations put on by a local Latino organization. The five lectures discussed issues I know are important to our school's students -- sex, HIV, AIDS, depression, drugs, and alcohol. As these presentations went on during the first three days of the week, I noticed this young Tongan lady -- who speaks good English and understands it very well -- didn't seem interested. She doodled most of the time and didn't participate even once in the class discussions.
Thursday, at the beginning of the class she signed in on the Latino organization's sheet. They get federal funding for this program, so having an accurate count of the people in their audiences as well as information about age and ethnicity, is important to them. Ten minutes into the class she asked for a hall pass to go to the bathroom. I gave it to her. She went off to the bathroom and never reappeared. Did she think I wouldn't notice? Seeing what she was up to, I simply marked her absent.
On Friday she came into the classroom about two minutes before the class started, signed in, and then again departed. She didn't even stay long enough for the class to start. I wrote up a disciplinary report because I felt she was not just being absent (I marked her absent for this class, too) but she was essentially lying to me and the school about being present.
I know the way Polynesian families deal with misbehaving youngsters. Years ago I used to go to court to defend parents who had taken a strap or a belt to their misbehaving children. No, I don't like child abuse. But I thought that if a judge knew about the traditional culture particular parents come from, he could admonish them for their behavior, tell them that beating a child isn't acceptable in this country, and take their traditional culture into consideration when setting a sentence.
I could have called this young lady's parents, but knowing the probable consequences, I didn't.
But did she really think I was so stupid and unobservant that I didn't notice what she was doing ? Or did she think that like many substitutes, who are in one school one day and in another the next, I wouldn't take the trouble to write her up ?
What brings this to mind is an experience I had with a Tongan student last week.
I have a special affinity with Polynesian students because I spent a year in Samoa, have been back there several dozen times, and have written about aspects of Polynesian culture. In the case of Tonga, I have visited all three of this nation's island areas -- Tongatapu (the main island), Vava'u, and Ha'apai.
I have had a particular young Tongan lady in several different classes. Last week when I had the same four classes every day for five days she was in one of these classes, too. Like most though not all Tongan and Samoan young people, she has an impressive size. I have exchanged a few words in Tongan with her -- Malo e lelei (hello) -- now and then.
She must surely know that I notice her and know her name.
Last week we had a series of wonderful presentations put on by a local Latino organization. The five lectures discussed issues I know are important to our school's students -- sex, HIV, AIDS, depression, drugs, and alcohol. As these presentations went on during the first three days of the week, I noticed this young Tongan lady -- who speaks good English and understands it very well -- didn't seem interested. She doodled most of the time and didn't participate even once in the class discussions.
Thursday, at the beginning of the class she signed in on the Latino organization's sheet. They get federal funding for this program, so having an accurate count of the people in their audiences as well as information about age and ethnicity, is important to them. Ten minutes into the class she asked for a hall pass to go to the bathroom. I gave it to her. She went off to the bathroom and never reappeared. Did she think I wouldn't notice? Seeing what she was up to, I simply marked her absent.
On Friday she came into the classroom about two minutes before the class started, signed in, and then again departed. She didn't even stay long enough for the class to start. I wrote up a disciplinary report because I felt she was not just being absent (I marked her absent for this class, too) but she was essentially lying to me and the school about being present.
I know the way Polynesian families deal with misbehaving youngsters. Years ago I used to go to court to defend parents who had taken a strap or a belt to their misbehaving children. No, I don't like child abuse. But I thought that if a judge knew about the traditional culture particular parents come from, he could admonish them for their behavior, tell them that beating a child isn't acceptable in this country, and take their traditional culture into consideration when setting a sentence.
I could have called this young lady's parents, but knowing the probable consequences, I didn't.
But did she really think I was so stupid and unobservant that I didn't notice what she was doing ? Or did she think that like many substitutes, who are in one school one day and in another the next, I wouldn't take the trouble to write her up ?
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Student Misbehavior # 1
I have had a plum assignment this past week. A teacher went to a week-long conference and left me with four periods each day to take charge of. The first three of those periods were taken up each of the five days by a presentation put on by a local health organization. These preentations concerned STDs, AIDS, HIV, Alcohol use and stress. Frankly I am very proud of the school district and thje school for having these presentations given to ouyr high school students.
One sometimes wonders what possesses individual kids to make them behave the way they do. Many are polite and respectful, but not a small number are openly hostile. This hostility shouldn't be taken personally because the causes are usually not personal. As I was told two weeks ago, "I don't like you. We don't like substitute teachers."
While not taking this kind of remark personally, it is sometimes not easy to accept behavior and attitude. Students are aware that substitutes don't know their names. They believe that they can act with impunity without a disciplinary write-up. They assume they can talk, ignore the lesson, listen to their iPods, and bother each other without consequences.
The school where I substitute is the only school where I work, and I am there about 3/4 of the time. After a while I get to know the bad eggs by name, so they are no longer anonymous. This begins to give me a handle on at least some of them.
Once they learn that their substitute teacher knows them by name, this improves their behavior. But if bad behavior isn't penalized and the same substitute meets the same students elsewhere, these same students will walk all over the teacher.
Thia week on Monday as the first period was beginning and our guest speaker was prepared to start her preentation, I approached three students standing in the back of the room. I made it a conscious effort to be as casual, as respectful and as courteous as I could when I asked them to take their seats so the lecture could begin. One of them, a kid in a red cap, baggy blue jeans with heavily embroidered back pockets -- see another post of this type of dress --, and a red-striped polo shirt told me, "Get outta my face."
I didn't know this student by name, but I recognized him as one who'd given me minor defiance in another class the week before.
Now, how can one deal with that ? No teacher can force these kids to do anything. They will do whatever they want. The trick, obviously, is to make them want to behave. I was aware at the time that if I didn't check this student's behavior right away, he would walk all over me every time I substituted in any of his future classes. He also knew that I didn't know his name.
I looked the kid straight in the face and stated, "I wasnt you to know that I have a policy. Whenever any student tells me, 'Get outta my face' I automatically write him up for disciplinary action." With that I simply returned to my desk, took out a disciplinary write-up slip, and began filling it out. At this point I still didn't know his name. I also knew that he was probably counting on my being there that day only and not being there for the rest of the week.
The kid came running to me, saying, "I was only fooling." I replied that I had noted his behavior the week before in another class, and I didn't think so. At this, he ran out of the room, missing that day's presentation.
The next day he once more arrived and stood with his friends in the back of the room. The sign-in sheet was being passed from student to student and I saw him sign in right after a student whose name I knew. Because of this, it was easy later to look at the sheet and identify the troublemaker. I could then put his correct name on the disciplinary write-up, whch I hadn't yet passed in. Obviously he wasn't counting on me knowing his name. Later I checked his name and photo on the school computer just to make certain I was correct, and passed the disciplinary clip in the the appropriate vice-principal.
He came to class the rest of the week, but avoided me. On Friday he was sitting at a desk in the back of the room. Students who misbehave tend to gravitate to locations as far away from the teacher as possible. In my rounds I came up to him with the sign-in sheet. Without a word, he stood up and left the classroom, probably thinking I still didn't know his name. For that particular day I simply marked him absent.
Understand, it isn't the kid I dislike. It is his behavior. If this could successfully be modified, we might be able to turn him into a serious student. This may happen in the next two or three years because as high school students mature their behavior improves. Let's hope this maturation happens to him.
One sometimes wonders what possesses individual kids to make them behave the way they do. Many are polite and respectful, but not a small number are openly hostile. This hostility shouldn't be taken personally because the causes are usually not personal. As I was told two weeks ago, "I don't like you. We don't like substitute teachers."
While not taking this kind of remark personally, it is sometimes not easy to accept behavior and attitude. Students are aware that substitutes don't know their names. They believe that they can act with impunity without a disciplinary write-up. They assume they can talk, ignore the lesson, listen to their iPods, and bother each other without consequences.
The school where I substitute is the only school where I work, and I am there about 3/4 of the time. After a while I get to know the bad eggs by name, so they are no longer anonymous. This begins to give me a handle on at least some of them.
Once they learn that their substitute teacher knows them by name, this improves their behavior. But if bad behavior isn't penalized and the same substitute meets the same students elsewhere, these same students will walk all over the teacher.
Thia week on Monday as the first period was beginning and our guest speaker was prepared to start her preentation, I approached three students standing in the back of the room. I made it a conscious effort to be as casual, as respectful and as courteous as I could when I asked them to take their seats so the lecture could begin. One of them, a kid in a red cap, baggy blue jeans with heavily embroidered back pockets -- see another post of this type of dress --, and a red-striped polo shirt told me, "Get outta my face."
I didn't know this student by name, but I recognized him as one who'd given me minor defiance in another class the week before.
Now, how can one deal with that ? No teacher can force these kids to do anything. They will do whatever they want. The trick, obviously, is to make them want to behave. I was aware at the time that if I didn't check this student's behavior right away, he would walk all over me every time I substituted in any of his future classes. He also knew that I didn't know his name.
I looked the kid straight in the face and stated, "I wasnt you to know that I have a policy. Whenever any student tells me, 'Get outta my face' I automatically write him up for disciplinary action." With that I simply returned to my desk, took out a disciplinary write-up slip, and began filling it out. At this point I still didn't know his name. I also knew that he was probably counting on my being there that day only and not being there for the rest of the week.
The kid came running to me, saying, "I was only fooling." I replied that I had noted his behavior the week before in another class, and I didn't think so. At this, he ran out of the room, missing that day's presentation.
The next day he once more arrived and stood with his friends in the back of the room. The sign-in sheet was being passed from student to student and I saw him sign in right after a student whose name I knew. Because of this, it was easy later to look at the sheet and identify the troublemaker. I could then put his correct name on the disciplinary write-up, whch I hadn't yet passed in. Obviously he wasn't counting on me knowing his name. Later I checked his name and photo on the school computer just to make certain I was correct, and passed the disciplinary clip in the the appropriate vice-principal.
He came to class the rest of the week, but avoided me. On Friday he was sitting at a desk in the back of the room. Students who misbehave tend to gravitate to locations as far away from the teacher as possible. In my rounds I came up to him with the sign-in sheet. Without a word, he stood up and left the classroom, probably thinking I still didn't know his name. For that particular day I simply marked him absent.
Understand, it isn't the kid I dislike. It is his behavior. If this could successfully be modified, we might be able to turn him into a serious student. This may happen in the next two or three years because as high school students mature their behavior improves. Let's hope this maturation happens to him.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
A Problem Student
I was lucky enough as a substitute teacher to receive a request from a teacher I have previousy subbed for to sub in his classes for five days while he attends a conmference. Furthermore, the job was much easier than usual because through a federal grants three of his four daily classes are being given presentations by a local Hispanic-oriented health organization, so that my active teaching is only required during the fourth period.
During this fourth period, I discuss a bit about a scientific subject -- static electricity, magnetism, lightning, for examples -- and then give the students worksheets from which they read material and answer questions based both on my discussion and what the duplicated pages ask.
One student, a ninth-grader from Yemen, has done almost nothing so far. This third day I really caught on to him. He refuses to sit in the area where the other students sit, tries to play at the computers in the room, and makes no effort. Today he took his worksheets at the last minute and copied answers from another student.
I know that this student misses his father, who is in the army in Yemen. The boy spoke about his father, and how he hopes his father will be back in the United States soon. He also let me know that he stays with his uncle and his uncle's family, and doesn't like his living situation.
I sense that the kid is a good kid, rebellious perhaps because of his situation. I have tried to communicate to him this opinion, and I know I must make him understand that it isn't him that I don't like, it is his behavior.
Today I must lower the boom. If I can teach this student that he is no longer in primary school and must seriously work, then I will have achieved something. My plan is this: first I shall have a short talk with him, telling him what I expect from him; second,I must insist that he do the worksheet work by himself after listening to my presentation; third, I probably have to write a disciplinary note about him so that he will be seen by one of the vice-principals; and fourth, I must call his uncle and describe the young man's classroom behavior.
Can I actually help this kid grow up and get serious ? We will see.
During this fourth period, I discuss a bit about a scientific subject -- static electricity, magnetism, lightning, for examples -- and then give the students worksheets from which they read material and answer questions based both on my discussion and what the duplicated pages ask.
One student, a ninth-grader from Yemen, has done almost nothing so far. This third day I really caught on to him. He refuses to sit in the area where the other students sit, tries to play at the computers in the room, and makes no effort. Today he took his worksheets at the last minute and copied answers from another student.
I know that this student misses his father, who is in the army in Yemen. The boy spoke about his father, and how he hopes his father will be back in the United States soon. He also let me know that he stays with his uncle and his uncle's family, and doesn't like his living situation.
I sense that the kid is a good kid, rebellious perhaps because of his situation. I have tried to communicate to him this opinion, and I know I must make him understand that it isn't him that I don't like, it is his behavior.
Today I must lower the boom. If I can teach this student that he is no longer in primary school and must seriously work, then I will have achieved something. My plan is this: first I shall have a short talk with him, telling him what I expect from him; second,I must insist that he do the worksheet work by himself after listening to my presentation; third, I probably have to write a disciplinary note about him so that he will be seen by one of the vice-principals; and fourth, I must call his uncle and describe the young man's classroom behavior.
Can I actually help this kid grow up and get serious ? We will see.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
An Interesting Indication
Each class I teach as a substitute teacher at the high school starts the same way. The bellrings, the students enter the classroom, and we size each other up.
What will the coming hour be like ? I wonder. Am I goiing to have trouble with any of the students ? Or will they settle down and do the assignment their regular teacher has left for them.
I have watched very carefully during the past few weeks to see how I can predict. As odd as it seems, I have found an indicator that seems to be accurate.
I have written elsewhere in this blog about the way students in this high school dress. The girls tend to wear blue jeans so tight they must have had trouble getting into them before leaving for school. With the boys, it is quite the opposite. They weae baggy blue jeans that hang halfway off their butts. Usually their boxer shorts are showing. This is the "jailhouse style." Prisoners in many California prisons are not allowed belts for fear that they would use them to commit suicide by hanging. Without the belts, their pants are constantly falling off and need to be pulled up.
In high school, these baggy blue jeans are usually decorated. The back pockets are almost always decorated with with fancy embroidered designs.
And here is the indicator. In classes where the students are very bright and hard-working, one may find one, two or even none of this embroidery on the back pockets of the boys' jeans. In ckasses where the boys are rowdy, not so bright, and not interested in their studies, almost all the boys sport jeans with embroidered designs on the back pockets.
One can guess that the intelligent boys are more sure of themselves and don't care as much about fitting in and being accepted by their peers. They place less value on conformity. When I see a class in which the boys don't have embroidered designs on the back pockets of their blue jeans, I know I am going to have a relatively easy time dealing with them.
What will the coming hour be like ? I wonder. Am I goiing to have trouble with any of the students ? Or will they settle down and do the assignment their regular teacher has left for them.
I have watched very carefully during the past few weeks to see how I can predict. As odd as it seems, I have found an indicator that seems to be accurate.
I have written elsewhere in this blog about the way students in this high school dress. The girls tend to wear blue jeans so tight they must have had trouble getting into them before leaving for school. With the boys, it is quite the opposite. They weae baggy blue jeans that hang halfway off their butts. Usually their boxer shorts are showing. This is the "jailhouse style." Prisoners in many California prisons are not allowed belts for fear that they would use them to commit suicide by hanging. Without the belts, their pants are constantly falling off and need to be pulled up.
In high school, these baggy blue jeans are usually decorated. The back pockets are almost always decorated with with fancy embroidered designs.
And here is the indicator. In classes where the students are very bright and hard-working, one may find one, two or even none of this embroidery on the back pockets of the boys' jeans. In ckasses where the boys are rowdy, not so bright, and not interested in their studies, almost all the boys sport jeans with embroidered designs on the back pockets.
One can guess that the intelligent boys are more sure of themselves and don't care as much about fitting in and being accepted by their peers. They place less value on conformity. When I see a class in which the boys don't have embroidered designs on the back pockets of their blue jeans, I know I am going to have a relatively easy time dealing with them.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Kids Who Don't Care
A few weeks ago I felt very depressed at the end of one particular day. I had had five classes comprised mostly of kids who simply did not care about their school work. I tried to get them to do the work their regular teacher had left for them, but most didn't do a thing. I was told bluntly by one student "I don't like you. We don't like substitute teachers."
I have been a substitute for more than two years now, so this kind of remark doesn't bother me. I just don't take it personally. Some substitutes make the mistake of taking comments like these to heart. I've even heard of substitutes who've left a classroom literally in tears because of student attitudes towards them. Being a substitute teacher is a tough profession. One has to develop psychic armor as strong as steel to withstand its challenges.
What depressed me was not the lack of respect for me, but knowing that many of these kids just don't see any connection between school and the rest of their lives. They have dislike and sometimes even contempt for school and learning. These kids don't know it but they are headed down paths that lead to terrible unhappiness.
In the case of the school where I teach, many of the students will eventually become either institutionalized -- in prison -- or dead at a very early age. It doesn't have to be that way. But how does one get through to them and make them realize that if they don't shape up, life will eventually be a lot tougher than what they're experiencing now.
I have been a substitute for more than two years now, so this kind of remark doesn't bother me. I just don't take it personally. Some substitutes make the mistake of taking comments like these to heart. I've even heard of substitutes who've left a classroom literally in tears because of student attitudes towards them. Being a substitute teacher is a tough profession. One has to develop psychic armor as strong as steel to withstand its challenges.
What depressed me was not the lack of respect for me, but knowing that many of these kids just don't see any connection between school and the rest of their lives. They have dislike and sometimes even contempt for school and learning. These kids don't know it but they are headed down paths that lead to terrible unhappiness.
In the case of the school where I teach, many of the students will eventually become either institutionalized -- in prison -- or dead at a very early age. It doesn't have to be that way. But how does one get through to them and make them realize that if they don't shape up, life will eventually be a lot tougher than what they're experiencing now.
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