Saturday, December 6, 2008

What in blueblazin is wrong with these students?

When people go to school to become a teacher, the majority of the stuff taught does not prepare you for the classroom. Yesterday, I gave my students an open book test on Huck Finn. I had been telling them to make sure they read if they hadn't already done so. Now, a lot of my students claim they would pass an open book test if given one. I kept telling them they wouldn't because they would spend the majority of their time looking for the answers because they didn't read. Now, I watched many of them and they had just started reading yesterday. It was quite comical to me because some of them think they can outsmart the teacher.

My third period class has 20 boys and 10 girls. About 8 of the students are special education students. There is supposed to be a provider in there everyday for them, but sometimes I don't see one. I now sometimes the special education teachers say they are in meetings with parents, but I'm not too sure about that and I don't think it is legal to not come in the class. Anyway, my issue is with the regular education students. There are about 7 or 8 of the boys who like to act out and feed off each others negativity. Yesterday and the day before I had to step out of my element and meet them on their level. I don't like to do that, but it seems like that is the only way to really get their attention. I should have mentioned that this tomfoolery has been going on since the 2nd or 3rd week of school. I've calld homes and the situation hasn't improved.

One of the boys called himself trying to insinuate that he could be with my daughter in a sexual manner. My friend who teaches at a different school said I should have written him up. I told her, I don't operate like that. I said some less than stellar things about him and his momma. For those of you who don't know, that's the ultimate no-no when it comes to Black students. All of the other kids in the class were like "Whoa, she went hard" which means I really got him good.

After this class, I went to the programmer to let him know how difficult this class is and something has to be done. I never have had to do this and this is the first and last time I will have to do it. I wrote down the students' name and what they do. The principal went around and found all of them and spoke to them personally. They said the work is too hard and they didn't know how to write a paper. I never knew this because the act a plum fool in class. She also told them if she hears anything negative from any of their teacher's they are out of the school.

I am so grateful the principal supported me on this issue. When I was speaking with my other friends who teach, they express the same sentiments as I. They had to step out of their element with some of their students as well. I guess it is in the air. I am wondering why/how some of these students can act foolish all of the time. It's like they are never serious about anything. It is my prayer that they get it together real soon.

2 comments:

President Anthony Taurus said...

honestly i think the worst thing you could have done was go to someone else. now it makes you look like you don't have power in your classroom. maybe you don't. but it's your duty to get it back. now the programmer seems to be the one with the "juice". you've got to be the alpha and omega in that classroom. that means you whoop ass. dealing with that kid was probably something i'd do lol.

as for me, i hated reading books back in school. i especially hated writing about them. i hated that dumbass summer reading list too. i feel those students' pain lol. i think maybe you should've started easier like finding out if they dumbasses could write a simple four-paragraph essay. even though I hated reading, i was able to pull that off no problem. what grade is this anyway? lol

foxxychica said...

Anthony, these students are sophomores in high school. If they can't write an essay (which technically should have a minimum of 5-paragraphs[that they should have learned in the 6th grade]) I don't have time to teach it.I'd have to start with basic sentence structure. What is happening in the public school system is we have to teach certain things and the expectation is these students should come with certain knowledge. I only went to the programmer because I want them out of my class. I probably never had the power in that class, but guess what, now all my other student know not to mess around or they'll be out of the school.

For the record, there were 8-10 assholes in the class that I've been dealing with since the beginning of the school year. How about this, I don't give a damn about them liking to read or not, when the go to the state pen, they won't have a choice. They don't do anything in the class, but yet they have a pipe dream of becoming successful. I'm not saying they can't change, but they have a long way to go.