Crunch time...

This is the time when the temperature gets cooler, the kids are sleepier, and everyone is antsy for Christmas break. Fighting against all of the external forces can be difficult. Trying to motivate the students is harder and making the material jump out and speak to them becomes nearly impossible. Today, I found myself giving them the majority of the period to work on their English project. They were happy and I was bored. I feel that sometimes they need a break from the monotony of everyday school, but I find that the students are becoming increasingly unmotivated as my teaching experience grows. It leaves me wondering what children will be like 10 years from now. Will they simply expect a lot of periods to work on projects? Will they be more dependent and complain more often? How can we reverse the effect the world is having on our children?

Observations...

I often observe one of my colleagues teach. One day I watched on from the back of the classroom as she was teaching a group of 7th graders. She stood in front of the class dumping information in, and the students would politely nod when she asked if they understood. She has never taken the time to learn anything about them and this works for her, but the students feel and show disconnect with her. It saddened me to think that when they thought of their 7th grade English class years later they were going to have this impression engrained in their minds forever. In some way she has adopted the bureaucratic mindset on teaching and it will be very hard to change. I wonder if she can change?

Waiting to begin...

I am sitting in the Arclight theater bar after a long day of grading papers. I began discussing the quality of their work with my husband and began to realize that I have set the bar quite high for my students. They often say that I am drift yet enjoyable, and they do not mind rising to my expectations. This makes me happy and then I wonder why I am thinking of my students on my day off. I feel that sometimes teaching is a 24/7 job and there is no end. Many of my colleagues grade, lesson plan, and try to develop or find brilliant plans on their days off. We never truly give ourselves a break, which is strange because the kids love time off from us!

Do you give yourself a break from the monotony of your job or is it constantly on your mind? Is teaching the only 24/7 job ?

Laundry day...

I have spent the day at my parent's home doing laundry since the washing machines in our complex charge exorbitant prices, and it is nice to see my folks. In between folding laundry I have been grading my extraordinary stack of papers that have somehow accumulated between parent conferences and Thanksgiving break. As I was making the necessary corrections to a vocabulary assignment (that my students did in class) I noticed that they most of the papers had something in common. They were all ridiculously MESSY! I thought about the consequences for turning in work of that quality when in junior high, and realized that each one of my teachers would have handed such work back and expected it to be re-done. Most of us would have done it without argument, understanding that if we had taken our time we would not have to do it over. As my dad says, "El flojo trabaja doble." Translation, "The lazy person works double."

I then began to think about how compromised I have felt at my current school site. My normal teaching methods are quite strict, yet fun and effective. However, it seems that we are expected to be counselors and mothers. In fact, one of my co-workers has told me that the administration has approached her several times about her lack of maternal instincts. If I were to hand back any of those papers and say to re-do them because their neatness was not up to par, the girls would whine and pout. Even worse the parents would call the administration directly and then I would get reamed (for trying to prepare them for high school and dare I say it, LIFE).

What kind of children are we molding if mediocre work has become the new standard? Our expectations have dropped and the children will only rise as far as they need to. Where has our challenge gone?

Political classrooms...

The political nature of teaching has been the topic of many conversations among my circle of friend. What makes a great teacher? What qualities do they possess? For me, it has always been a clear picture in my head, painted by all the models of good and bad over the years. During student teaching, I encountered a master teacher who was just teaching the kids to pass a test. It was since that moment that I have striven to be more than a facilitator for a test. I want to be the change that I constantly read about. I do not want to be the teacher that categorizes my students based on race or gender and then decided that I cannot "deal" with them in my room any more. My classroom is a safe haven, where any child can rise to the occasion with the proper motivation.

Yet, all of this discussion about gender or race makes me wonder, how did politics find its way into our classrooms?

Keeping order...

As I sit here in my lonely classroom, the day before Thanksgiving I ponder upon the never ending question, "Is it possible to have authority and democracy in a class?"

I have read a lot about authority and how it can soon turn into authoritarianism. On the other hand, the big push lately seems to be democratic classrooms. This notion of democracy in a classroom is great, yet I wonder how most principals feel about this. Do they support this or would they prefer to have teachers that hold sole authority? The principals I have worked with believe in sole authority by the teacher. The principal often says, "Sure! Give them a choice between two well-thought out assignments, but DO NOT let them come up with it on their own." So even if I wanted to give them choice, there really isn't any.

I have found that giving my students options often eases their mind. Of course, I stay within the confines the administration sets for us. As adults we have choice, yet as children we do not (in many life situations). Even though we assume that children do not know how to make positive and correct choices, they do! It is incredible how they can decipher what they want and give well supported answers behind their decision.

So the question remains, do you want to have our children grow up with a sense of what democracy is, or keep them blind and confined until they turn 18?

Being Empathetic...

A week ago, I encountered a student that was hurt by the word "Jew." She is Jewish and found the word to be offensive (and negatively used throughout history). I am one of the theology teachers at the school - in addition to being one of the English teachers - and frequently use the terms "Jews", "Israelites", or "Hebrews" when referring to the Old Testament text in the Bible. Before she pointed this discomfort out I had been aware of the negative tinge this word held. For centuries Jewish people have been disregarded, mistreated, and slandered; however, it took this child to mention her hurt in order to bring up my discomfort. I quickly realized that every time I used this word in class, she became uncomfortable and the classroom environment became slightly unsafe for her. We had a class discussion on how this minor problem could turn into a larger one throughout the year, and the students acknowledged that they didn't even realize what an impact this one word made.

This incident now has me thinking about the immense impact we can have on one person. They can carry your negative or positive influence around for a long time, maybe even a life time. Is it that society has become far more sensitive and politically correct than we used to be? Do teachers practice this 'political correctness' as well?