Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A 2nd grader wrote that? (1st year story)

1st year story:

As you may recall from other posts, my first year I had a 2nd grade gifted and talented class. They were violent, disrespectful, and constantly disruptive. They were also not gifted and talented.

I intercept a note between two students. J is the writer of the note. I slip it into my back pocket and continue talking to the class making no further acknowledgement of the note. I forget about it and the day ends. I go home. I empty my pockets out at home and remember the note. This is what it said:

Fucin bich mom fuc
suckt my dic

This was so weird. This boy came into the class in September a very quiet boy. He would not get involved in the fights in class; he pretty much kept to himself. Yet, I found him starting to hang out with the violent kids during lunch. It seemed like he was starting to act up to get accepted by them. I knew his mom pretty well. He was an ELL and I knew Spanish. The mom felt comfortable communicating with me and was always very sweet and respectful. I was pretty baffled by this note, but I felt it was probably some way that J was trying to gain acceptance from most of the class of violent kids (I only had 8 girls in the class and about 16 boys). I still thought I should report it. You never know.

The next day I brought it to the attention of the lead guidance counselor. I verbally told him about it- asking him for advice. He shook me off and said, "You can leave the note in my box if you want. But, he didn't do anything. I'm not really concerned with the what ifs. I don't know what you expect, but I'm not planning on doing anything with it." And that was that. I put the note in his box, but nothing came of it. I didn't know how to handle it myself being a first year teacher. I felt it would have been so weird to bring it to the attention of his mom. I looked like a 16 year old and I coudln't see myself talking to his mom about it. So I left it alone.

Now looking back, I would confront the kid and ask him about it. Reprimand him for passing notes during class, and for writing such vulgar language. He would get punished based on his actions and based on the rules and consequences already stated in the classroom. But, before the discipline, I think I would speak to the boy about the content of the note. Then go from there. If the boy refused to tell me anything, I would then bring it to the attention of the mom and discipline him in class.

Innocence

I love it when I see glimpses of innocence in my students.
One day, the students were all sitting on the rug waiting for the minilesson. I went to grab something from the closet.
"Oooooooooo!!!" the kids chant. I turn around with a questioning look on my face.
"Jack said the G-word!" I heard that they said the 'D'- word. I bring Jack to me next to the closet, away from the other kids.
"What did you say?" I ask in a firm voice and a stern face. Poor Jack doesn't know what to say. He's an English Learner and is barely acquiring BICS. I have to work a lot with him to use complete sentences. He can't look me in the eye and stares at his feet. He looks surprised as well as scared because of what he did. He doesn't speak.
"Jack. Tell me what you said." Tears are building up in his eyes. I put my hand on his shoulder. "Jack, I need to know if you said a bad word." I usually make the students own up to their mistakes. They need to tell me what they did rather than have others incriminate them (sometimes falsely).
"Gsh." He mumbles.
"Gosh?" I ask. He nods.
"Gosh." He affirms.
"Oh! Jack, that's okay. That's not a bad word! Class, 'gosh' is NOT a bad word. Let's get back to work."
Awww. Poor Jack. That's how innocent my class is. They think "gosh" is bad.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Ruby the Copycat

I have a Ruby the Copycat in my class (do you know that book?). It's quite annoying. Besides a copycat she's a compulsive liar. Let me give you some examples.
The other day, I had a student with very chapped lips. He laughed at something and the smiling cut his lip open; it started to bleed. Ewww... okay Juan- go to the nurse.
Not even 5 minutes later, I see Ruby the Copycat peeling skin off of her lip. SELF-MUTILIATING!!! She picks at her lips until they start to bleed. "Ms. T, I'm bleeding. I need to go to the nurse."
"Ruby, I SAW you pick at your lips! I SAW you do that to yourself! Why did you do that?"
"Noooo, it just started bleeding."
"Here's a paper towel. Go sit down." Unbelievable! Are you kidding me? I give her attention- I don't know where this is coming from.

The next day, when the students are at their seats doing independent work, Ruby the Copycat comes to me and shows me her lower lip that has dots of blood on it. Another self-mutilation for attention?? I don't even want to go into it today. I am not going to argue with you.
I sigh. "Just go to the nurse."
About 20 minutes later, Ruby comes back from the nurse. The nurse's note to the parents says:
"Ruby bumped her head on the door. No sign of a bump or redness. If swelling occurs, take to doctor."
"You didn't bump your head, Ruby- I sent you to the nurse for your bleeding lip."
"Oh. I forgot."
Trying to keep my cool... "You forgot? So you lied to the nurse? Why did you make that up?"
She was caught; she had nothing to say to me.
"Uhhh... I didn't though... what happened was..."
"I don't want to hear it. Your mom will though. I'll be talking to her this afternoon. Go sit down please."

You kidding me? Aahhhhh!!!!

One more story for our Ruby the Copycat. Ruby walks into the classroom first thing in the morning- "Ms. T! I have to go to the bathroom!"
This is a common occurance for Ruby. She is always asking to go to the bathroom. I've written about her before in another of my blogs- I just used a different false name. She always asks to go and then takes about 20 minutes in the bathroom. She does not have any bathroom issues. She just wants to get out of doing work.
I always tell my students that they need to go to the bathroom during breakfast in the cafeteria because they will not be allowed to go to the bathroom until after Readers Workshop in the morning (about 1 1/2 hours after they come in).

So, I tell Ruby "No, Ruby. You know the rules." all morning long. We do our Do Now activity and then we do morning meeting. The whole time Ruby's asking me. Trying to wear me down. I know when this child really has to go to the bathroom. I can see it in her face. She did not have to really go.

"Ruby, you have not done your Do Now. You are not following the rules during the morning meeting routine. You have not completed your Weather calendar. How can I let you go to the bathroom when you have not been following the rules?"
So Ruby finishes her Weather calendar and sits nicely for the rest of morning meeting. As soon as morning meeting is over, she asks again. AAHHHHHH! Maybe she does have to go.
"Go quickly please. I need you back before Readers Workshop begins."

She leaves. She's gone for 10 minutes. I teach my minilesson and all the students are already in their reading spots reading. I see Ruby open the door slightly, reach her hand in the room and pull of the bathroom pass from the wall.
"Ruby! Come in please."
Ruby comes in with a smug look on her face.
"What are you doing Ruby?"
"I forgot the pass."
"After 10 minutes you realized you forgot the pass? You should have already gone to the bathroom and been back by now. If it was REALLY an emergency you would have not even worried about the pass, you would have gone really quickly to the bathroom. Isn't that right boys and girls?"
"Yes, Ms. T." the students chant.
I take the pass out of Ruby's hands. "Go sit at your reading spot please. It obviously isn't an emergency for you to go use the bathroom."
"No! But I'll go quickly! I promise!"
"Sit and read."

Again- are you kidding me? Ahhhhh this is the only student in my class the pushes my buttons like that. And it's only 1st grade! I guess there are times where there will be one student in your class that is like that.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

1st year story: Kyle the Killer

They should really tell you in education courses more about the 1st year obstacles you might encounter. There are certain things that I needed to have in order, especially for the first day and I didn't. These are small things that I didn't even consider. A morning routine. How kids enter the classroom and unpack. I thought I could just tell the kids, "Good morning. Come in, unpack, and sit at your seats." First of all, not all kids will unpack at the same time. Kids need something to do at all times. If not, they become troublesome. What do kids need to unpack? Where should they put it? Where do they hang their backpacks and jackets?
So the first day, I did not have all of that thought out. Not that I wasn't prepared, I just didn't realize I had to think it through that far. I think I've written about my first morning in another blog, so I'll skip all that part.

We haven't done anything all morning because I've had to correct students' misbehavior. I give paper to students to do some writing. I tell them to write about something they did over the summer. Typical assignment for the first few weeks. I had already moved Kyle the Killer to sit by himself off to the side away from kids near the backpacks. I had seen after a few weeks that Kyle is a very violent kid and pretty much hates everyone in the class. Today, Kyle starts writing on his own. Yes! Good for him. I'll leave him alone and hopefully we'll have a peaceful afternoon. Again, spoke too soon.

Billy decides to get something from his backpack. On his way, he also decides to antagonize Kyle. Stupid stupid Billy. Have you not seen what this kid is capable of? You deserve whatever is coming to you. Kyle only moves his eyes from his paper and starts huffing and puffing. Oh gosh... I'm across the classroom quickly moving towards Kyle to try to calm him down and talk to the other kid. Billy doesn't say anything more but turns to go back to his desk and on his way bumps Kyle's desk. Kyle had his pencil point on his paper in mid-sentence and it made him make a scribble line across his paper. That was all it took. Kyle breaks his pencil and growls the most menacing growl I have ever heard. His hands grip the bottom of his desk and he THROWS the desk to the front of the room. It flips over and bangs on the floor and the cabinet. It hits one of the girls who starts to cry and hold onto her arm. I go to her briefly to make sure she's okay. Kyle grabs Billy by the collar of his shirt and shoves him to the ground. Billy quickly gets up, cursing at Kyle. I get all the kids up and crowd them to the other side of the room before I go try to calm Kyle down. Kyle winds up and punches Billy in the jaw. Billy falls to the floor, crying, holding his bloody mouth. "Kyle!" I scream. I go straight to him. Kyle is also crying. "He bumped my desk and made me mess up."
Are you serious???? Ahhhhh I can't do this! I can't deal with this!
"Okay, I understand. Let's calm ourselves." I put my arm around him and give him a hug. I walk him to the door. I'm going to call Mr. P (the VP) to take you on a walk to let you breathe a little. We'll give you some space."
Now you understand the pseudonym: Kyle the Killer?

I definitely got to know a lot of my students and saw how they ticked- sometimes. Too bad I wasn't experienced enough to 'fix' them. Or at least to tame them a bit. I grew some thick skin that year. I also cried more than I've ever cried before.

No appreciation: My rant.

Ahhh I've spent so much money on my students. For prize box stuff, crafts, everyday supplies, classroom storage, and classroom necessities (pocket charts, etc). I also have weekly lunches with one student and I get our "dessert"- some cookies & snacks. It adds up. I now have no money. Haha, my fiance kids around with me sometimes saying I spend to frivolously. And I have to admit I do, but not the usual way people are frivolous with their money. I don't spend it on me! I haven't gotten new clothes in I don't know how long! I always feel guilty spending money on myself when I know I should save. But I guess I have no guilty feelings about spending all my money on my kids because it's for someone else. :) Ahhh I need to not be such a *newbie* teacher (still in first few years of teaching) and put so much into my class.

I spend so much TIME also on my class. I have weekly and monthly newsletters. My monthly newsletters are all themed and contain pictures of activities and things that happened the previous months like writing celebrations, field trips, and kids birthdays. (Oh that's another thing my money goes to- ink cartridges)
In November I had a 3 page newsletter with pictures, captions, stories, and blurbs about what we were going to do academically in November. I was so proud of it. I printed 20 copies of it on my own computer using my laser printer, my ink, and my paper. The kids were excited about it. I sent it home. I see parents the next day as they pick up their children. Nothing. Not one parent commented on the newsletter. A few days later, some students' newsletter is still in their folder where I had put it. Thanks a lot parents. Do you know how much work and time I put into your children? A simple, quick, acknowledgement or thank you would be much obliged.
A friend (a colleague from my school) told me not to expect much. Most parents are like that with this population of students. If they're talking to you it's to complain about other children bothering their child or about the homework. Rarely do they come and thank you just for your time and effort.

Do my parents understand that if their children were with the other teacher of the grade they wouldn't be getting HALF of what I provide for these kids? Do they know that their child wouldn't be learning HALF as much as what they are learning in my class? No appreciation. Most teachers do more than their job requires. We don't just go in there and pass out worksheets. We don't have them open their text books and read. If we care enough, we make learning interactive, creative. We spend our money on supplies to supplement the hands on experiences for our students. We also celebrate our kids' learning. My kids have told me, "Aww, it's time to go home? But we're having fun!" and it's math time.

I obviously don't teach for the recognition or for others to praise me. If I did, I would have quit a long time ago. But it would be nice once in a while. Just a simple, "Thank you for what you do."

Saturday, December 6, 2008

textbook response!

I have one student in my class who, let's say, needs the most guidance behaviorally. She is quite a character and loves negative attention (likes everyone's eyes on her when she's getting reprimanded).

I have tried many tactics with her. I have used various forms of positive reinforcement, such as "I like how Jose is sitting criss-cross with his eyes on me. That tells me he's listening." and waiting for her to respond... that usually doesn't work. The times that I can catch her doing something right, I do the same thing for her, "Wow look at how she is sitting with her feet on the floor and using her finger to read her book. I really see her thinking about her story." 5 minutes later, she has slumped down to the ground and has started tapping the floor with her book. For this in the beginning, I praised the people around her, hoping she would straighten up and correct her behavior so she could be praised too. But this very rarely worked. So I decided to try a different approach. Call her out and demand that she sit properly and read. She would sigh deeply and make an "ugh" sound and sit correctly and look at her book. Then 2 minutes later, she would be bothering the group next to her.

I thought about all the things that could be causing her to act like this. She's frustrated. She feels like she can't read. But this doesn't only happen during reading, this happens in writing, math, morning meeting, science, and social studies! Throughout the whole day! I guess she could feel like she's not smart and she doesn't want to even try. I conference with her regularly and I see that she is capable and she reads just fine. She's a little bit below grade level, but she's where a clump of the class is. She's able to write just fine. I feel that she's just lazy. She doesn't like to do work.

So the things I've tried: praise students around her, catch her doing something right and praising her, telling her directly very firmly to sit down (or whatever she should be doing), asking the class for the rules and generally asking if this behavior (whatever she's doing but not directly saying her name) is acceptable, calling her parents, taking away her recess, and taking away her gym. I also give her choices: "If you continue this behavior, you will lose recess. If you decide to do your work, you can keep your recess." I started a weekly behavior plan with her and I give her a sticker for every period she follows the rules. The first week, worked like a charm. The 2nd and 3rd weeks she has not met the sticker goal for the week. I would use the stickers as leverage. Sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. I give her a big prize at the end of the week: playing with our class hamster during Choice Time. But she hasn't reached the sticker goal (which is half of the possible stickers she could get). I've also tried to connect with her on a personal level. I started a weekly lunch with a student just for her. She was my first student. We had a great time and we got to know each other on a personal level. That definitely helped. She laughs more with me now and is an actual kid with happiness. Before, she was always bothered. But she STILL has bad days that she's flinging herself on the rug, hitting the people next to her and being the last one to transition to the next activity.

Yesterday she had a bad morning from the beginning. She did not want to stop her Do Now activity to move on to Morning Meeting. She did not respond to my general calls to the class to come to the rug. Today I decided to leave her. I had the class continue the morning meeting without her. I didn't even look over at her at her desk. The rest of the students were beautiful and did what they were supposed to do.

My troublesome friend at the desk decided to start "hmph"ing and "ugh"ing as she started slumping down in her chair and slid to the floor. The kids started turning around with confused faces and pointing her out to me quietly. I quickly said to them in a low voice, "We don't pay attention to students who misbehave. We ignore them." The kids accepted that answer and turned and continued the morning meeting (calendar, alphabet, sight words, weather, etc). The troublesome student started sliding under all the tables. What in the.... ???? I wanted to go over there, get in her face, and tell her (more like YELL at her), "What you are doing right now is unacceptable. Sliding all over the floor is NOT how a first grader acts. You will stand up, walk to your rug spot and say the alphabet with the class. You will also lose recess today for sliding all over the floor and not listening to me the first time I told you to put away your Do Now." But the thing is, I've done this before and she does what I tell her to do when I get mean like that, but then she's back to misbehaving 10 minutes later. So this time, I continued to ignore her. She was misbehaving for a total of 10-15 minutes and after that, seeing she got no response from neither me nor the class, she quietly came to her rug spot, picked up her alphabet chart and started chanting the alphabet with the class.

I didn't say anything to praise her just yet. After the alphabet, we read the morning message and I have blanks for the students to fill in. My troublesome's students' reward for coming to the rug was me calling on her to write the word in the blank. It told her congratulations for making the right decision and coming to the rug. I will let you participate and write the word on the board because you made the right decision. I just never explicitly told her that.

It was like a textbook response. The ignoring worked so perfectly. She came to the rug quietly and immediately joined in with the class. It was awesome. All troublesome kids have their own way to be dealt with. It took me a while to find my student's but now that I have, I hope that it continues to work as beautifully as it did the first time.