There’s Always One
It happens every semester so I should expect it, but it doesn't bother me any less when it does happen. Today, one of my student's sealed his fate. He skipped his speech after I had already given him special permission to give it late. Students must complete all speeches in order to pass the class. He was already in trouble.
On Tuesday, he stood up for a story-telling activity with another girl in class and told his story, of being coddled in high school and doing well and then coming to college, drinking too much and "smoking too much pot." During his impromptu story, he talked of a teacher who tried to get him back on track (that would be me), and although I've been able to see those kids through and help them on some occasions, this time it's too late, and I am so disappointed.
I don't know why I allow the one kid in class like this to bother me so much, but they always do. It is such an amazing thing to be able to help a student through a rough patch and get back on the right track. I did it when I taught high school and I did it last year at the college level too. I just think some kids aren't ready to be "reached" yet. He's clearly one of them.
These university students share so much information with me that they're not sharing with their parents. I had one student write about her rape, something she's kept from her parents for years. I've had others talk about their drug and alcohol use and abuse, and it's heartbreaking and frustrating. It's not high school. There's no guidance counselor to enlist to help. I've contacted advisors from time to time, but when all is said and done, there is little I can do beyond what I'm already doing, listening, being available, and offering to help whenever I can.
In just three weeks, the semester will be wrapping up, and as of January, I'll have a new group of students. I'm sure there will be at least one that does this to me yet again.
Compliments for Me-Actual Learning for Them
I could easily give my students an article or something to read as a class to teach them the skill of outlining. But I don't. Finding an article they would all find interesting, something they could all relate to, is practically impossible. So I do the same thing every year. I write this on the board. . .
"Mrs. BBM is SO awesome."
They chuckle and share some private jokes for a couple seconds. Then I ask them to fill in the details in the form of a graphic organizer. Last year, they were very funny details. This year they were super flattering!
The kids told me I was a "snazzy dresser," and that I had "great hair," and perhaps the best compliments of all were the ones they placed under "great personality," and "funny." They added details under each category like "cute shoes," and "bombshell blonde," and "stylish haircut." When we were finished I had an entire chalkboard full of compliments that any girl would love.
Then we turned our graphic organizer of Mrs. BBM awesomeness into an outline. And I could hear the light bulbs clicking on. They get it now. They really get it.
When I was finished getting flattered, we had a rough draft workshop. I was making the rounds and sitting in on groups, and adding my two cents here and there. And then I got to this one particular girl and her paper on the abuse of animals in the entertainment industry. It absolutely blew me away. I've been telling them that in this argumentative essay, they need to find their voices. But still, I see what they've written and it is usually straight-forward and informational. It doesn't jump off the paper. This girl totally got it. I was so excited about her opening paragraph that I asked her to read it out loud. She blushed the whole time, but you could tell she was super proud of herself. The other kids were silent when she was finished. It was powerful. I knew I had gotten through to at least one person in the class during the past two weeks when I've been pounding it into their heads about developing voice in their writing.
In my speech class I also read her paragraph out loud. My speech class delivers persuasive speeches next week and I've been stressing the need for passion in their speeches and appeals to emotions. I read it and they were, for once, speechless. It feels so good to even reach one student; and my hope is that many others will strive for what she accomplished in just her introductory paragraph.
It is unconventional days like this in the classroom that make me love teaching. Despite the fact that I woke up yesterday feeling horrible, I left campus happy with a boatload of cool compliments AND the knowledge that I had really taught them something.
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Get Rid of the Warm and Fuzzies
Filed under: Back in the Classroom, Things that get my gi all in a bunch
Last week, I had a student skip his scheduled speech date. In order to pass the class, students must give all speeches. I also don't allow late assignments. So when he came in my class and asked what he should do about it, I had a decision to make.
I happen to like this kid and think he has great potential; but he is such a slacker right now and he needs to get organized. So I decided to allow him to give his speech a class late for half credit. It's still a failing grade, but at least he won't have to dig himself out from under a big 0. I told him though, that the only way I was allowing him to deliver his speech was if he wrote a personal improvement plan, a plan that detailed how he was going to get his act together.
Today he came to class on time and with his plan in hand. I allowed him to deliver his speech and with any luck, he will pass this class, probably by the skin of his teeth.
But that's not what I want to talk about today.
What I want to vent about is what was in his personal improvement plan. Apparently, this student has some learning issues and spent much of his high school career being pulled out of mainstream classrooms to be coddled. He says so himself. He goes so far as to say that he was actually "spoon-fed" answers on tests on most occasions and that because of this he entered his freshman year of college without any skills when it comes to getting work done and correctly. Things were done for him in high school.
He is not the first university student I have had with these types of problems; and frankly, something needs to be done about it. We spend so much time in education, stressing the importance of making students feel good about themselves by handing them answers and spoon-feeding them, that we forget that we're doing a huge disservice to these students. When you're used to being spoon-fed, what will you do in the work force? I'll tell you what, you'll fail in that arena too.
When I taught high school, my second year of teaching I was given three special education TAM classes which means that I had a special education teacher in my classroom during those three classes and my students' issues ranged from not being able to read, to having ADHD, to having severe behavior problems. I was at first, very upset about having these classes. I didn't get any special education training when I was getting my Master's in education. I didn't have any idea what to do or where to begin; and personally, I felt it was grossly unfair to my non-special ed students since they made up less than 50% of the classroom and were surrounded by many more special education than state-mandated laws should have allowed. Fortunately, I had a talented teacher in my classroom to help me. She provided accommodations to students, but one thing she did not do was coddle them or give them answers. Because of this, I would sometimes hear students talk about how much easier the other special ed. teacher was to work with. This teacher was notorious for handing kids A's when they did nothing to deserve them. It was extremely frustrating for me and for my TAM teacher.
Having moved on to teach at the university level, I am increasingly frustrated with where education is going. Some of these freshman are completely unprepared to handle the responsibility of a college class. This isn't high school. I shouldn't have to write assignments on the board each day, when they already have a syllabus. It can be a frustrating job of taking them out of the hand-holding attitude they've grown up with to one that stresses personal responsibility.
While I fully realize that kids with learning disabilities and behavior issues need modifications, simply providing them with answers they don't have to work for isn't helping anyone. Self-esteem is definitely important when it comes to education, but shouldn't we be helping students with their self esteem by giving them the tools and resources they need in order to find the answers on their own. Isn't this actually what education is intended to be? Isn't the feeling kids get from actually accomplishing something on their own better than us lowering expectations and still patting them on the head?
I'd like to know when special education became a warm and fuzzy thing where instead of teaching kids alternate ways to get to the answers, we decided it's best to just hand them the answers. There is a trickle down effect to this that is bringing students into universities unprepared. And if students go directly from high school to the job market, then what?
One may think that I haven't experienced any issues with my own kids, and therefore can't speak to this issue; but that is simply not true. In 1st grade, Big I was pulled out of class several times a week to get extra help with reading. She didn't like being pulled out and I didn't like it either. I fought it her entire Kindergarten year and finally gave in during 1st grade. She was behind the other kids when it came to reading. She needed to get caught up. After a couple months of extra help, she was able to stop going to the reading resource teacher. The teacher, although tough at times, didn't hand her answers. She taught her better ways to read and Big I got it. She didn't get a sticker every week; she got one only when she had done really well. It paid off. Now in third grade, Big I is one of two kids in an independent reading group. She doesn't need guided reading because her reading comprehension is off the charts. I recognize that kids need extra help sometimes; but they need the right kind of help to really get somewhere.
I've heard a lot of talk recently about extending school days and extending the school year. Maybe instead of adding more time to the school year, we should be changing what happens in the classroom during the hours they are there. Ten hours of handing kids the answers isn't going to be any better than eight hours of doing the same thing. However, eight hours of actually teaching kids with learning issues how to work more efficiently and find the answers on their own is going to benefit not only the students, but future employers and our country as well.
The dumbing down of American students has to stop if we want our country to be successful an competitive. Instead of lowering expectations, we need to raise them and help students find ways to get there. Spoon feeding is for babies, not grown-ups; and something clearly needs to change.
Ants in Your Pants Makes a Comeback
Yesterday I did my crazy listening quiz in my Speech class. Last semester I did it out of frustration. The first assignments they turn in always push the limits and not in a good way. You tell them to type it; they write it. You tell them to use Ch. 12 to get the outline format correct; they obviously don't read it. It's frustrating to say the least, especially after you spend 20 minutes in class giving instructions on how to do it.
So I passed out the quiz, which they're supposed to read entirely first, and watched the fun begin. I had a total of two students who got it from the start and did none of the nonsense. Almost everyone else did at least the first five. I had three boys make it all the way to the very end. They actually asked me to time them as they stood up and sat down 10 times as fast as they could so they could write their time on their quiz (See the above link for the actual quiz).
I finally broke my serious look and explained why I do this quiz each semester. I talked about common mistakes on their outlines and how they should at the very least, try to convince me they've done some type of proofreading (i.e. acquaintances is not spelled "aquatenses").
When all was said and done there were a lot of giggling people in the classroom and I think they got the point. Only the next assignment will tell.
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On Kissing Public Safety Officers
Today the world was conspiring against me. I woke up with a headache that made me want to pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep. But I couldn't. Eager students were waiting for me on campus.
I left my house at the same time I always leave the house; but my route to work now included every bus stop in the county right smack in front of me. The main road I needed to take? Yep, you guessed it, down to one lane only with major construction going on.
I arrived on campus at 7:58 exactly and knew I had to hustle. You can't preach about timeliness when you're not timely.
I pulled into the space right in front of the "Faculty/Staff" parking sign and got out of the car ready to sprint. The public safety officer who was parked two spaces over exited his SUV and said, "Miss, this is parking for Faculty and Staff only." I pointed at my parking pass that clearly says "Faculty/Staff" and he looked at me like I was insane.
He quizzed me further. "What do you do here?" he asked me.
"I teach in that building right there," I said. "You're welcome to come join my class if you don't believe me. What? You think I stole a faculty/staff tag or something?"
He apologized for holding me up and I was on my way, but not before telling him, "You know, if I wasn't running so late, I would probably kiss you."
I think that felt better than getting carded.
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