Forecast: Gloomy

One of the students from my current school was killed in a car accident early this morning. I don't think I met him, but from what I heard he was a very nice boy who was due to graduate either this term or next term (this term ends in two weeks). Grief has settled over the building and class sizes are smaller than usual. As a teacher, I know I have to do my best to keep a strong facade for the students. It's easy because I didn't know the boy, but grief is contagious. For the students who did know him I can imagine it's hard for them to even be here. We're supposed to start filming our movie later today and I think one of the students was very close to the recently deceased. We need to move on with the lesson, but will the students be receptive? How will they handle making a horror movie? Last week death seemed so far away that it was easy to laugh and joke about it. Now, we have all been reminded of how fast everything can end. It would be good to teach the students to let go, but it's so fresh people are still talking about him in the present tense. How do I pull the students forward without rushing them or feeling insensitive? This week will be a trial for me, but more of a trial for the students. Usually my response to other's grief is silence. I'd rather not say anything than say the wrong thing, but I'll need to say something to get my class moving on the unit since I only have 6 days.

Pleasant Surprises

My new school is an environment that is completely different than anything I ever expected form teaching. Some days there are four students in class, and others there are eight. I have yet to have full attendance. Some students are constantly tardy, and it doesn’t seem like there are any consequences. I don’t know what consequences would work if any were put in place. It’s possible that consequences will just drive the students to be truant more often. Most of the students that do come everyday are ideal students. They are attentive, for the most part, and contribute to the class discussions. However, very often there will only be one student who offers information and you have to work to get the others to speak up. We’ve tried the “I want to hear from someone else” technique, but some students just don’t want to talk. I feel like I thrive on student involvement, but I also know that some people are listening even if they don’t respond.  

 The students do respect my cooperating teacher and if they don’t she let’s them know that that kind of behavior is not to be tolerated. I wish I was here at the beginning of the year to see how she created such a report. I think it took them a little while to realize that I am to be treated the same way, because I will treat them just as my CT does. During a group reading, one of the teachers team teaches with us went to the other side of the room. Upon her departure, a boy pulled out his phone and started texting. He must have known that I was behind him because I was doing most of the reading. If he did, he obviously didn’t care. When I said his name, he acted like he wasn’t doing anything wrong so I had to tell him to put his phone away. He did, and this is a trend that I have noticed; the students respond well to redirection.

One thing that I enjoyed last week happened during the district PLC meeting. We were going over the rubric used for written responses and trying to come up with some more specific items we would look for in a “4” paper, and how a “4” differs from a “3” and so on. It was enjoyable because not only did I speak up, I was nervous at first but I became comfortable, but we also made progress. In the various meetings that I have attended (i.e. PLC, child study, staff meetings) it seemed that there was a lot of discussion that went no where. It was nice to see teachers come to a consensus. I heard about a meeting that was held to define consensus and people couldn’t even come to a consensus on the meaning of the word. This PLC was also very equality oriented. My last district PLC had a leader that made sure everyone knew she was the leader (even though she was a co-leader). She wanted everything to be done her way. This PLC has two co-leaders, but if you sat in on a meeting you might not guess who they are. They did lead the meeting, but they also respected the fact that the rest of those people in attendance had opinions that matter.