Monday

Back to school. I am now considering having Russ continue with the book after I'm gone. The kids have 6 more weeks of class. I imagine that many teachers have felt this way about novels read in class–stuck. The no homework policy is killing me, which is odd because I've always been a really avid supporter of not having homework. I don't really want them to have homework, I just want them to read on their own. Tomorrow.

Last week was a tough one.

The book that I'm using for period 5 seems to be hit or miss with the students. About half of them are interested and involved. The other half is whatever about it. They don't contribute. I'm not sure if they care. I'd really love to have more activities in between readings to explore the themes in the novel, but I really just don't have the time. I feel really bad that I picked such a long novel now. I'm having a hard time figuring out where to paraphrase because everything in the book seems important to hear. I need to cut some of it out. I need to involve the students more and have them take responsibility for the learning. I don't have the time.

I knew, from talking to Russ, that novels are hard to do because of the attendance rate and the number of students who come to class tardy. I don't think that I would choose such a long novel again.

I'm having different problems with my period 1 class. I made an executive decision to include them in the production of the yearbook. Some of them are doing great. Others don't care. I have two new students and that is making it difficult too. The work they're doing is mostly individual. Each student or pair of students has a page to do. Russ has been the class more because Mrs. Austin is back, and that has really helped with this class. I'm not the authority figure that these students seem to need.

I have spent many hours thinking about my classes, the school, and how I would fit in it. I am always torn between supporting the student and supporting the education. This school is lax, but I have become too lax as well. These students need structure and I'm not providing it.

I'm not sure if I would have been able to go through this experience without Russ. I don't think I've ever met a better guy. He's there whenever I need to talk to him. I think about the first time I met him, and I never would have predicted how things turned out. He really does make me feel like I could be a good teacher.

Ugh, these kids do not like writing. We've been working on persuasive essays and it's not going so well. Today was a little better. We decided to give the essays two more days. I gave them a sneak peak of the novel we'll start on Wednesday, and it seemed to help motivate them.

I did have a student tell me that she can't stop thinking about the logos, ethos and pathos though. That it cool. She started noticing the different ways people have been trying to convince to do stuff. Funny.

While I was working this past weekend, I thought about how Franklin should have its own yearbook, considering that the EL yearbook is about $75. I brought it up during Monday morning meeting, and now we're making a yearbook. Should be interesting. I have a feeling that it will only get more complicated in the coming days though. Mr. Barlow says that he thinks it should become an annual thing for Franklin. He says it would be a great idea to incorporate it into future curriculum. As in, make it a mandatory part of English class. Kind of like a yearbook club. I have been thinking about clubs too. It's really too bad that there aren't any clubs. I know this might seem weird, but I'd really like to start a GSA or Alliance. There are enough gay kids there, I think it would help them. I loved my high school GSA.

How long does it take until you have a full year of lessons? Gosh.

So, I didn't go to school today. Russ let me stay home, which was nice of him. I have been chipping away at my TWS. In theory, a digital TWS sounds good, even a digital portfolio, but I think they they are boring either way they're presented.

Friday was an interesting day. Thursday was slow going in period 5. The students were not excited about what we were doing. I got a little frustrated. So, yesterday, I wasn't sure what to do in class. The kids in every other class I had were bored and unmotivated and even a little cranky. I decided to have a talk day. Every student sat at the table with me. I gave them each a postit, where they wrote down at least one thing they wanted to talk about. And we talked. Overall, it was really nice. I've had problems in class with students talking over other students and several students just don't say anything at all. I did it the day after the safety survey, to really drive home the point that I care about them and I'm interested in their lives. In general, they were very respectful of others. Every student talked. One student talked about a show him and his friend have in a few weeks. He got a lot of support and encouragement for that. Another student talked about how her landlord is being a real ass and her family is looking for a new apartment. It was really good, I think.

Being able to have a conversation (respectfully) with more than one person is a huge skill for these kids. I think. I want to be able to incorporate discussion more in class. Next time will probably be more focused though.

I am headed towards an open-ended book unit. I have a high-interest young adult book in audio version. I'm sure the students are going to love it, and I've read a lot of research that says reading for fun is an important part of school and leads to lifelong readers.

I am taking over Monday meeting next week. I am probably going to throw up. Haha. I get really nervous when I'm doing any sort of public speaking. I sound like a fool. So..............I need to figure something out this weekend for it. Bribery of some sort.

Megan (my girlfriend) is helping me finish my TWS this weekend. I'm excited for it, I just keep putting it off.

I keep trying to put Franklin into some frame as far as public education, but I can't. I'm still not sure if the school's purpose is to educate at risk students or to rehabilitate them to a mainstream community. Some of these kids are violent. They hurt themselves, they hurt others. Who cares about class? Who cares about persuasive essays?

My units are very unorganized still. I have a hard time thinking big picture when I'm planning lessons. Everyone keeps saying "you don't have to reinvent the wheel". That's funny. The units I find online would never fly in class.

I went home Friday feel very nervous about not being in school on Monday.
I was worried that my subplans weren't detailed enough, but as I was writing them, I realized that I can only say so much. I was interesting to think about how much responsibility should be placed on the sub. I immediately wanted to find an activity that would be individual and clear, so the students would essentially be able to figure it out by themselves. Mr. Barlow ended up teaching, and he was really impressed with my use of technology. He is a little bit of a nut.

I enjoyed the civil rights training on Monday and the standards-based teaching presentation. I discussed the training a little bit with my students and also had them take a safety survey. The results were not very surprising. Franklin is great because it's such a close knit group of teachers and students, but one of the ways it becomes close knit is by creating this imaginary villain, aka Edward Little or random ignorant adults or past teachers who just don't understand. It certainly seems to work, but I wonder what effect it has on students when it comes to empathizing with others or seeing both sides of a story. Anyway, the survey went over okay.

Russ is trying to get me into Franklin. It's nice to have so many mentors like Russ and you and Mr. E, but it also is a little overwhelming

I feel disorganized and sloppy.

It's hard to be structured at this school because everything changes so quickly, and I don't know all of the rules yet.

I am frustrated with lesson planning because I want to do class activities but so many students are absent or show up late. I just finished my unit. 32% of my students were absent on any given day and 45% were either absent or tardy. How do I teach the whole class, and figure out a way to catch up 1/3 of the class from the day before when they were absent, and catch up the 2 or 3 kids who come in 15, 20, or 30 minutes late every day, and all without giving homework? This school screams project-based education. Out of 13 students in my period 5 class, 2 completed the final project. Two students are passing my period 1 class right now. Traditional instruction, or UMF instruction, doesn't suit this school.

We're almost half way through. That is a little scary.

I only have 2 students passing my period 1 class.

This has been a stressful week.

You know, teachers work with a lot of paper, and when you work with a lot of paper, you get a lot of paper cuts. I have about 3 right now.

Today in class, the students were all working on their final projects. They were being quiet. They were all listening to music through their headphones. They were all on their laptops. It was strange. I didn't know what to do. None of them needed help or had questions. I felt really guilt for not doing anything.

Mr. Barlow thinks he knows what kind of teach I am, but he doesn't.
Sometimes, when I'm stressed out or just eh, I write short sentences that have not much to do with one another.

I think to be a teacher, you must have to be sort of a homebody. You get a job at a school and just stay there for 10 or 20 years. I would like that. I don't enjoy change.

I am in the process of getting my TWS organized. Well, started and organized. I know that I will need to fill in a lot of pieces.

If someone told me what to teach, I would be able to teach it better then making up my own units. But, I find units online and I don't like them.

I was initially really excited for technology class, but it is turning out to be pretty boring. We are making websites, but not as a class because that would be nearly impossible considering the attendance issues.

What I don't get about this school is why, if you know many of these students are here because they haven't been responsible enough to get to class in public schools, that you're going to give them even more freedom here and expect them to rise to the occasion. Sink or swim. Some of them care. But most of them don't. They'll get Ds and be happy.

Their projects should be done by next Tuesday. I have to keep going even if they aren't done. Students here don't get too much feedback on work because the quality of the work isn't too important. It's important that the work gets done though. If you are working all period, you will get an A. The teachers would all need to highly individualize their classwork for this school to really be meeting students academic needs. That kind of differentiation, the kind I should technically be doing, takes away from any kind of group work or all-class work that might be done. It would turn into individual quiet work for every student.

The Independent Study program here at the school is based off of packets. Packets of work for each subject. How do students learn from packets?

Some students do their work really fast just to get it done. I want to shake them and say "Seriously!? You have 45 minutes to do this. Just think about it. Think about the information I'm giving you. You don't need to copy it or define it. I just want you to think about it. Isn't it weird? Isn't it strange and neat and annoying? Don't you just think that's fascinating?"

I don't think that you can teach students to love learning.