H-town Teaching

“Miss, what if you die in the hurricane?”

Me-”Do you want me to die in the hurricane?”

Students- “NO! You’re a good teacher and we’d miss you!”

Every bad day I have from now I’ll just think of this.

Now, do I need to evacuate because of the hurricane? Are people just going crazy because they’re bored and need some bad weather to spice things up? Is it neccesary for the cost of gas to spike THIS much in just a few hours? MAN….

Looking back on my entire teaching experience, Institute and now (it’s limited, I know), I’ve noticed that some things never change in the world of teaching…mostly the ups and downs. For example, I can go from having such a rush because I’ve just taught a student who can’t tell the difference between subtracting and multiplying or speak English to convert between fractions/decimals/percents AND find the lowest common denominator….or I feel awful, so awful, because my students tell me I’m not challenging them and they know the students at “rich schools” are being more challenged than them. I left school in tears most of last week knowing that I was struggling to challenge my students.

To be fair to myself, I do have a complicated placement: I teach two subjects, math and science, and I have 6-8 graders in each period. My students are “ESL,” but all but 3 speak fluent English. The school’s intent is to “shelter” the ESL students at my school, to keep them in a “safe” environment where they go from one ESL class to the next learning important content-specific vocabulary, rather than just from an ESL language arts class and then immersed with the other students for the rest of the day. This would make sense, if my students were “pre-lit,” the classification we use for students who have little to no background in education whatsoever. These are typically students from refugee camps and who’ve never stepped foot in a school before. This was the case at the last school my ESL coordinator worked at and sheltering was beneficial to these students. My students don’t need sheltering, as much as I love having them in my class. They need a classroom with a teacher who’s focused on ONE grade level’s objectives, not THREE. I’m doing my best as a new teacher to just learn how to teach math and science, and mastering the content and planning for all is so complicated and overwhelming. Some members of my administration are helpful, and I know they want what’s best for the students. The problem is that the red-tape involved in exiting students from ESL is ridiculous, it could take months to review the files of just one student. And as we’ve begun to review these files we’ve already found that many haven’t been updated since 2005. Students shouldn’t even be in ESL that long, especially those that are passing all portions of the state’s standardized test, TAKS. OH MAN, welcome to HISD.

But back to the rushes, and the things I can control. First of all, I’m so SO so lucky. Although the content is difficult to differentiate, and I have about 5 times more planning to do than other teachers, I only have 22 students total, as opposed to the 150+ my friends and roommates all juggle. I’ve gotten to know my students very well and we’ve built a really great  classroom culture together. The students have already invited me to a quinceanera for the weekend (this is like the Central American version of a sweet sixteen mixed in with prom for 15 year olds), and many keep reminding me about it and making sure I still plan on going and dancing with them. Of course I’m balancing this friendly relationship with some definite classroom management. I’ve decided I’m going to be strict in class, while maintaining a smile…these kids are so used to teachers who let them play in class, and I think it’s exciting to them to have a “real” teacher, one who assigns homework and gives frequent assessments. And of course I balance the strictness with stories of our favorite class mascot, Sombrero Sam the Skeleton, who’s stories have taken on a life of their own. We now know that Sombrero Sam lost his arm and leg while playing soccer (or futbol for some of my students), and that he’s from DC. We also know that he lost the top half of his skull while headbanging at an 80s hairband concert, and that a skull is the head part of your skeleton. My kids were reading a book about skeletons last week, and there was a picture of a skeleton standing with a bunch of kids in a soccer field. The kids simultaneously shouted out: “Miss! LOOK! It’s Sombrero Sam!!!!” The minute I start talking about Sam during class the kids immediately start taking notes–they know there will be a bone-us question on each quiz about his life. New teachers and old teacher–I can’t stress what a good management tool this is! Create a class mascot and a story about his life, and trust me, the students will always listen when you’re talking because you might mention the mascot.

So today is Monday and it was day one of really trying to implement new differentiation in the class. I decided to really focus on the things I can control, rather than the bureaucratic mess of HISD, and it paid off today. While my 6th and 7th graders worked on conversions I started a new lesson with my 8th grade table on ordering rational numbers. They were so excited to have their own advanced lesson that they worked quietly and purposefully. One student even said the lesson was hard, and he needed help, which was the most beautiful thing I’d heard in weeks. This was the same student who kept telling me last week I wasn’t challenging him, and that the rich kids had harder classes. It was exciting and I can’t wait to see my students work harder than ever before.

Time to review lessons for tomorrow! I’ve already had two “OH SHIT” moments where I’m solving math problems in front of the class and realize half-way through that I’ve either solved them wrong or had no clue how to even finish it. Teaching is crazy…and when I’m not falling asleep at 9pm, stressed out, crying, or freaking out, I’m actually enjoying myself (really, I am…teaching math is out-of-control fun sometimes…seriously!). Welcome to TFA.