The Grand Experiment

I know it has been a long long time since I have posted here, and probably nobody is checking it.  Things have been hectic this year and I will go back and write a few posts describing some of the big events of this year.

This post is about my newest informal experiment in student communication: Text Messaging.

I was due for a new phone, so I decided to also get an upgrade to my current plan.  I have noticed that my students text a lot.  Possibly more than they talk.  So what I am going to do is communicate with them the way they are most comfortable communicating.  The cheapest way to accomplish this was to add unlimited text messaging to my phone and then collect all my students cell numbers (on a volunteer basis).  I believe I got about 2/3 of my students to give me their numbers without any incentive, which I would say is pretty good, and for most the only reason I'm not closer to 100% is that the other students are absent. 

I have given them my cell number and have told them they can text me with any questions, comments, concerns, etc. that they have. 

I will also text them reminding them about big assignments, homework, binder checks, to check their email if I send them an assignment, etc.  Some students are also signing on to a "wake up text" where I text them around 7:45 to wake up. 

Due to all this potential texting I bought a phone that has a full keyboard so that I can type much faster.  I also am able to create 'groups' by class so I can send out classroom texts and other things.  If a student goes to the bathroom for too long I can text them telling them to get back to class, etc.

This is an experiment to see if this increases communication and assignments being turned in.  I know not all students will respond to it, but there are quite a few who have proven very responsive already (or at least very excited about the prospect of communicating via texting). 

My plan is to see how it works for this last advisory of the year (which starts right after spring break in 2 weeks) and see if I can find a noticeable difference in work getting turned in and people coming to class on time and prepared.

I will need to see if this will get abused by the students, but I honestly doubt it.  They've had my apartment landline number for a long time and hardly any of them call it, so we shall see.  The great thing about this plan is its flexibility.  If my students don't text me all that much then I can reduce the number of texts I need per month and pay less.  If it doesn't work at all I can just cancel the unlimited text messages.  So there really aren't that many extra costs.  I also can probably write this off my taxes as a business expense (it would have to be proportional to the amount of texts I use for work vs. personal - but that isn't too hard to figure out)

Anyways I am excited to see how things go!  I am going to start posting more regularly in the future, both to track my own progress and to keep people more up to date on what is going on over here in DC.

A ringing endorsement...

If this doesn't make pay for performance seem like a bad idea... well then I don't know what would:

Voters turn down teacher merit pay measure

Posted by The Oregonian November 04, 2008 20:51PM

Categories: Education, Politics, Statewide Measures

Voters turned down Measure 60, which would have required the state to base teacher pay raises on classroom performance.

Like nearly all of their peers nationwide, Oregon teachers are paid strictly according to their years of experience and their level of college education.

The measure was sponsored by Bill Sizemore, the conservative initiative activist who gathered enough signatures to place five measures on the ballot.

A coalition led by the Oregon Education Association argued that Measure 60 would require students to endure more standardized testing and pit teachers against one another.

---------------------------------

For those who may not know: Bill Sizemore is one of the biggest assholes alive hands down.  So if HE wants to do pay for performance... then clearly there are some serious problems.

Sounds crazy on paper

So this week has been a little crazy in terms of what has happened at the school, but as I shall relate, it is relatively boring in the classroom.

So on Monday, Wednesday and now today (Thursday) we have missed 3rd period due to fires throughout the building.  Monday's was in the boys locker room on the ground floor (we could smell the smoke in the stairwell); Wednesday's was on the 2nd floor in a stairwell not too far from my room (though I didn't actually notice it); and today's was on the 4th floor.  This has meant that 4th period has ceased to exist basically (for me).  And we all go outside and stand/sit around for an hour or two and then move into the auditorium and wait for either the next period or school to be over.

On top of all this, today there were several more disruptions.  First there was a pre-planned 'health fair day' at Woodson.  This involved a play about teen pregnancies (which some of my students were in) and a series of tables set up to talk about different health issues/services.  This took up all of 2nd period.  

Then during lunch we got this announcement that 'the school was in lockdown.'  Now this was the first time we've ever heard that over the PA system, so I assumed it had to do w/kids acting crazy because of the fair and then running loose in the halls during lunch.  Then several kids came up and were all like "there's a HUGE fight in the cafeteria and they've got guns!!!"  Now I don't take the kids too seriously when they talk like this since rumors spread like wildfire and are almost always ridiculously exaggerated.  And this was not an exception.  Turns out two things were going on at once.  First of all there was a large fight in the cafeteria involving 30+ students which involved several actual arrests due to the level of violence.  This led to students who were 'up in the tower' to be blocked from re-entering the cafeteria by police (which led them to believe there were guns, etc.).  At the SAME TIME there was apparently some fighting taking place between two neighborhood rival gangs that did involve gun fighting, which caused the school to be on lockdown in order to keep the students in the building and away from the fighting that was taking place somewhere nearby-ish (though I didn't hear anything and my windows were open).  This also led to us not being allowed to sit on the bleachers when we left for the fire since we 'didn't want to be targets' for gunfire, so we had to stand under the bleachers.

Anyways, all this led to was one boring day for me.  I basically sat around, read the news and didn't really feel like grading (which I suppose I could have done).  I talked w/some of my kids about Harry Potter and other great science fiction books though, and that made me feel good to know that a) some kids have great taste and b) some kids still read!!  

Tomorrow are parent-teacher conferences.  I am banking on a 0% attendance rate for my kids since I have upper-classmen this term.  That means  yet another day w/no instruction and nothing to do but grade (which I will actually do this time).

Not too bright...

A student who has failed (or gotten a D at best) in 3/5 of the classes she has taken w/me due to a lack of effort and work ethic has asked me for a recommendation to an internship. This is the same student who comes late every single day and only ever does the bare minimum of effort on any assignment. I told her I would but that I would be honest. Apparently that didn't phase her.

My letter is probably too nice as it stands, but I did say that I have "major reservations" about her and "cannot wholeheartedly recommend her to this program."

There are 2 reasons I didn't say no outright (which in retrospect I probably should have)

1. She is already a pain in the ass, if I refuse to do this for her she'll probably become even more of one.
2. She showed up with another student who also asked for a rec and who I will give a good one, so it felt weird to say no to one and yes to the other that publicly.

I should have just said no... *sigh*

*Edit 9 AM* After writing this, I decided that I needed to point out her excessive tardiness and not turning in major assignments, and the only nice thing I said was that maybe this job could help turn her around. Ok this rec is now worthless. I don't really know what to do here. I guess I can just tell her I really didn't have much nice to say and face the consequences in class. Only 1.5 months left anyways!

*Edit 10:26 AM* She hasn't asked for the rec yet, maybe she won't want it or remember.

Title of my blog is seriously true

So I haven't updated in a long time, but I survived testing week (we had 3 hour 2nd period classes-which was INSANE).

Everything is going along fine, but really busy.

Nothing of note to report.

Oh dear

When reading this, please do not worry about me. I am doing quite well and am as back to normal as ever.

I had a pretty rough week, which culminated in a negative event on Friday during my lunch period.

Firstly, all week my students were acting pretty crazy. They refused to listen to any directions, they were being ridiculously disrespectful and I was just beginning to lose my cool.

On Friday I had "the talk" about 2 times and both times they listened for about 2 seconds then went back to doing exactly what they were doing before.

Then 'the event' happened. One of my regular lunch participants and student was sitting in his regular spot as normal (We will call him boy 1). I was behind him facing the computers, helping one of my students log on. Then a 2nd boy came in (boy 2) and placed his entire arm around boy 1's head sort of choking him. A few students commented on it and I turned around and told boy 2 to "take his hands off of boy 1" and when he didn't I went over, placed my hand on his shoulder and repeated my directions. He finally did what I asked but then boy 1 (who had his back to us) stood up, turned around and tried to either hit or push boy 2. But instead of hitting boy 2 he hit me (since I was standing right there) right in the face (around the cheek bone). It wasn't very hard and there is absolutely no physical damage, it didn't even hurt. Instead I was simply shocked that this was happening in the first place.

Due to a myriad of factors, I 'lost my cool' to put it lightly and began swearing like a sailor and crying really hard. First I told boy 2 to "get the f*** out of my room" and then went off on how none of the students "f***ing respected me" etc. etc. Now this was clearly not the way to react but basically that event was the big straw that broke the camel's back. I mean the kids think all their shenanigans are really funny, but all they are is draining. I was also crying a lot and couldn't even look at any of my students without bursting into tears again so I just walked out of the room entering a few times to grab my cell phone and my laptop. This lasted about an hour and I talked with several administrators, security, other teachers and my dad.

Everyone was very supportive of me and had nice words of both encouragement and advice, all of which were appreciated. Many of the kids were also quite concerned since they had never seen me act that way and some of them were afraid I was going to leave and never come back (while that thought never even entered my mind, I did consider leaving for the rest of the day if I couldn't pull myself together, though that turned out to be unnecessary since I did manage to get a hold of myself after a while). It is hard not to take what the kids do personally even if I know that is what I have to do. They're kids, they aren't talking to each other to hurt my feelings, they are just talking to each other because that is what they want to do. But when I work so hard and they give me so little, it just makes me so upset. I don't ask for much and they won't even give me that. I know that I can't change who they are overnight and make them into respectful human beings, but they're just so awful sometimes that it really drives me crazy.

Needless to say some new rules are being imposed for 2nd period and lunch time. I can only do so much, it is true, but I have to try to change things around because it is getting ridiculous and it has to stop if we are going to function until the end of the school year.

But as I said before I am perfectly fine now, I got a lot of the emotions out of my system and I am back on track for dealing with the students. What happened was an accident, and while the students will be getting in serious trouble for fighting, I am not going to add any additional burdens because I was physically involved.

I greatly respect and care about my students, I just wish that sometimes they could give me a little respect back.

OFFICIALLY ANGRY

THIS ENTRY IS GOING TO BE IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE I AM PISSED OFF.

Ok maybe not, but now you get my point.

Just 45 minutes ago at the end of lunch I got into my perpetual argument about why students shouldn't use words like gay as a slur and the argument devolved into a discussion on evolution. Lunch was over and students were heading to their classrooms and I was in the hallway. The teacher next door (the world's most inept social studies teacher) came out and asked what we were talking about. We told her, and she said that I SHOULD NOT be giving my opinion on religious matters. RELIGIOUS MATTERS?!?!?!!?!? And she tried to quote the Constitution at me. ARE YOU SERIOUS. This woman wouldn't know the Constitution if it hit her in the face. Repeatedly, which was what I was thinking of doing. HOW MANY TIMES have they talked about JESUS and GODS WORD to the students. HOW MANY TIMES. And how often have you or I openly complained to their faces?! what is that? Never? WHY YES. NEVER. NOT ONE TIME. Even though I am WELL within my rights to do that.

And what exactly was I doing?! Oh that's right... TALKING ABOUT EVOLUTION. A SCIENTIFIC FACT YOU OBTUSE NON-QUESTIONING PEOPLE.

Believe in religion all you want. That's your choice. But DON'T YOU DARE tell me I can't talk about evolution to the kids because I might "unduly influence their decisions because I'm in a position of authority" DON'T YOU DARE. The whole POINT of these kids getting an education is so they don't blindly accept what they are told. THAT IS THE POINT. I'm not telling them to drop all their beliefs and side w/me. And the kids know that. Hell they even stood up to that teacher trying to say I couldn't talk about this. I'm asking them to question their reality, not force them to accept mine (although that'd be a killer side effect).

But if she ever tries that again I will come down so hard that she won't KNOW what hit her. I'm officially making evolution part of my courses. I'll just have to teach social darwinism in all my classes in order to justify it. (In world history that's a no-brainer, I'll have to think about how to do it with economics.)

But all I know is these kids HAVE to question what they're told, and right now the teachers are just treating them like sheep and not teaching them to be CRITICAL THINKERS as in THINK and QUESTION what they are told, be it by me, another teacher, the news, or the KING JAMES BIBLE. I mean am I telling them it is all lies (whether or not I believe that is a different story)? NO. What I am telling them is they have to listen to what is out there, they need to have open minds and then they make their choice. Not just blindly accepting something because it is in the bible, I mean COME ON that's how we get things like the crusades and hate groups.

HATE IS WRONG PEOPLE!!! YOU KIDS SHOULD KNOW THIS FIRST HAND AND YET YOU TURN AROUND AND DISH IT OUT TO THE OTHER PEOPLE. DON'T LET THOSE AT THE TOP KEEP YOU DOWN! RISE UP AND CLAIM WHAT IS YOURS!!!!!