H-town Teaching

Everything I’ve worked toward this year comes down to this upcoming week. All of my students are taking the TAKS test. I spent most of March and April in a frenzied panic, cramming information down my kids throat and drilling the hell out of them, but at this point I’m finally calm. I know I did everything in my power to help those kids do well. And now I’m lifting that responsibility off of my own shoulders and putting it on them. And they’re going to do well, I can feel it!

So seeing as March and April were intense, this past Friday I decided to change things up a bit. I had my classes drop everything and spend 45 minutes writing down one nice thing about everyone else in the ESL program. I called it a “community-building” activity. At first the kids seemed annoyed, but then they started taking it very seriously (which I know because it was dead-quiet in my room…a miracle!). They wrote the nicest things about eachother! Granted, there were a lot of “ur sexy” comments, but they also tried to find the best in one another. One student was obviously in a similie/metaphor phase on Friday because she wrote one for every person, including me: “MISS, you are like a flower. Beautiful” So sweet. Other students wrote that I was strict, but nice and “thanks for keeping me on track.” I’ll be compiling all these comments today and handing them out individually to each student tomorrow, so they have a great big confidence boost before their round of testing starts on Tuesday.

I received my 8th grade math TAKS scores this past week as well. Out of my 8 students who took it, 3 passed and 3 failed by two questions. There is a re-take for the non-passers in May, and I know those 3 will pass it next time giving me a total of 75% of my 8th graders passing which is big in ESL land. I wish those 3 would have come through on the first round of testing, but for some it was already a huge leap. E, for example, only got 16 questions on the TAKS test correct last year and he got 28 correct this time (you need 30 right to pass).  This is HUGE. M, my favorite student who’s only been in the country for one year and a half, failed by 4 questions which is AMAZING because…well…she can barely speak English. She had a raw score last year of about 11 questions correct and got and 26 right this time. I know she has a great shot at passing next month, she works sooooo hard to analyze those word problems.

Cross your fingers, guys. The fruits of our labors will be seen soon enough. And I’m finally calm and ready for them.

Let’s be honest, the real reason I like teaching is my ridiculous interactions with the kids. A few highlights from the last week:

-S having a conversation with the characters in the book “Muppetts Go to Manhattan” during Drop Everything and Read time: “No Miss Piggy, don’t eat that.” and “Kermit, what are you doing in Manhattan?” And the other students just sat and watched him, transfixed. This conversation with the book went on for about 10 minutes. I was seriously almost crying I was laughing so hard, partly because the dialogue was hilarious and partly because of the serious and somber mood from the rest of the class.

-I was anonymously nominated for “Most Inspirational Teacher”. I’m not bragging–only 4 students submitted my name, and one of those who did listed the reason as “because my boyfriend’s in her class.” Brilliant.

-The students told me they’d heard Third Ward, the neighborhood our school is in, would be swallowed up by Midtown (and renamed as such). I joked that the name change would bring all the white people (Midtown has become one of the most gentrified neighborhoods in town). The entire class screamed “NOOOOOOOOOO!” Being the resident white person in the room, I feigned shock and offense. G, representing the class, let me know “MISS, you’re not white. You’re an honorary Mexican!”

- And to keep going with the identity theme, Student Council told me I was hood. This is kind of a big deal.

-Lastly, I am officially the teacher that sings (poorly, but I sign nonetheless). And by default, my class is composed of the students that sing (math songs, duh). And every week I get new converts from students in other classes that I tutor, and to hear these once-reluctant kids singing my fractions song while quizzing is fabulous.

Oh yeah, and the kids took the TAKS today. Yuck.