Day Three

Kristie’s new job is great. It’s hard to compare her last job to this one. She has gone from working 9.5 hours a day with marginal holidays and no sick leave or lunch break and no retirement package to UND’s benefits, which include full health coverage for the entire family (!!!!), paid vacation, holidays off, an hour lunch break, a chance to take up to three classes a year towards her degree (tuition free as well), the chance to dress up and work in a professional environment where her boss is not a neanderthal. I couldn’t be happier for her. She truly deserves it.

*****

I’m up and running now. Like a chicken with my head cut off. My Literature and Language classes (basically American and Brit Lit) are fine. But my College Comp is a mess. I have my syllabus all planned out. I have a year of teaching it under my belt. In fact, this is really the sixth time I’ve gone through this (I had two semesters at BSU, one at NCTC, and now three here), yet I still find myself scrambling to bring in new things and try out different ideas.

I don’t think this is necessarily bad. I just wish I could find my groove and really get comfortable with the class. Maybe one reason is that in that class - more so than any of my other classes - I feel more like a student of writing rather than a teacher of writing. Again, I don’t think that is bad either. My personal writing process and strategies are always changing. What worked for me last year, isn’t what is working for me this year. The topics I wrote about in college are not what I focus on now. My style and voice too evolve. So this, I think, is how I go about trying to teach this advanced composition class - always changing and evolving.

Plus I have very, very high expectations (both of myself and the students). And those are always weighing on me. But I work hard at it. I pour over the essays. I constantly read the latest books and articles on comp theory. I read new essays and articles to try in class. But I never really feel settled either.

I guess, in the end, there could be greater things to worry about in my career.

*****

This morning as I was standing outside my door on hall duty, I heard a shout coming from down the hall. I looked and there was a former ALC student of mine. He failed my class because he didn’t turn much in. But it didn’t mean he still didn’t like me. And it didn’t mean that I still didn’t like him. We joked some. His failing never came up. That is the way of high school sometimes.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, though, I have another student who failed a fourth quarter class. I have seen him several times in the hallway. Last year he was constantly bopping into my classes - usually when I was in the middle of it - to announce his arrival at school. I actually enjoyed his antics - most of the time. However, he chose to skip the final three days of class. His grade was not solid enough where he could afford to blow off the final assignment. So he didn’t make it. From what some of his peers have told me, he holds me responsible for this. To which I say, “Too damn bad.” Make your choices and live with your choices.

You win some, you lose some.

******

We are at our wits end (how is that for using some horrible clichés in the last two lines?) with this freshman football team. There is not a single leader among them. We scrimmaged the JV team to hopefully fire them up (we were absolutely destroyed in our first game). But we were just destroyed again. And we will likely be destroyed tonight in our second game.

In addition to having no leaders, there is precious little enthusiasm or physicality with this bunch. Don’t get me wrong, they are a wonderful group of kids. But they just don’t have what it takes to be football players. Even the best players in this class just sink to the level of their peers rather than rising above and leading.

Coach and I have tried chewing them out, running them, forcing them to get more physical, working over and over on the basic techniques of blocking and tackling. All to no avail.

I should have seen this coming. It starts with the parents. At our first game I had a father standing on the sideline practically coaching right along with us. Wonderful. I guess he must wonder what we are paid to do. Kind of like when I walk into the chiropractor and tell him how he should move around the delicate bits of my spine. Foolish. Yet another parent met me before practice the following day. He informed me that his son was fine (he had gotten hit pretty hard during the first game). Then he said that he had an idea that he wanted to run by the coaches. He wanted to send a box addressed to our team from whoever our next opponent was. So picture this - the team gets out to our field and sees this large box sitting on our bench. They see that it’s addressed to us from whoever is on the opposite benches. Then it is this guy’s idea to fill the box full of cream puffs. So when the team opens the box, they see it packed full of cream puffs and gets them fired up since they make the implication that the opponent thinks them just a bunch of cream puffs.

I politely said I would run it by the other coaches.

But that is the worst idea I’ve ever head.

There is so much wrong with that, I don’t even know where to begin.

First, what is a cream puff even? I have no clue. I wouldn’t know one if I saw one. Is it a marshmallow?

Second, I’m not sure our kids today would even get the implication. You’d do much better starting a chat on Facebook about how bad our team is and address it to the other team.

Third, this plan presupposes you can actually motivate this group.

Fourth, if you have to resort to such ‘gimmicky’ things to motivate your players, you’re in a world of hurt already and no amount of cream puffs or other pranks will ever make you any good. True football players are born, or at least made, they aren’t suddenly tossed into a rage by some little stunt.

*****

SSR must be in full swing. The number of hits on my blog yesterday morning was 3318. By the end of the day that was up to 3357. By this morning it was up to 3381.

*****

I always wonder about different was to begin a class. Now for me there is a difference between a class and a lesson. For some there might not be. I may cover several lessons in one day or just get through part of one. A class, though, is a different animal. (I hope this is making sense). When I begin a lesson, I try to hook my students right away with something interesting or applicable to their lives (and what self-respecting teacher doesn’t say that?). But as far as the overall class, I am not sure how to begin. I used to have a journal topic posted that students spent the first ten minutes writing on (well, I’m not a fool. Many spent two minutes writing and 8 minutes talking). Then I used to a discussion topic, but that went over as well as the Titanic’s maiden voyage. I have forgotten the other things I used to do but there have been many more over the years.

I also keep an eye out for ways other teachers begin their classes. Some are really efficient (those ‘expert’ teachers - and what ever happened to all that ‘Q-comp’ talk around here and incentive pay . . .) and weave their entire class and lesson together so that whatever they begin with ties right into the main lesson and it’s all a joy to watch. I wish I could do that, but it never seems to work for me. Other teachers I’ve seen have ‘bell work,’ which makes me cringe. Just not my thing.

This year came upon me so damn suddenly that I haven’t really given this concept any thought until now. So really I haven’t been beginning my class with anything. I just greet the kids at the door and walk around observe the kids for the first 5-10 minutes of class. Now in the past I would have been enraged at the time that wastes. I mean that is almost an hour a week I am wasting when I could be putting that time into a lesson or standard or preparing them for a test. But in a real way I am teaching while I observe. I hear snippets from their lives. I get caught up on the athletic and social events. I hear about their interests, jobs, families, and so on. I am building up a reserve of great things to draw on in future lessons.

Just letting them visit also has another great effect, it settles them down. Well, at least it does for the classes I have now. I have to remember what it was like when I was back in high school. My senior year, for example, I had a few classes with my very close friends. Of course, when we saw each other in class - my best friend never got to school more than 5 minutes early in his life - we had to get caught up - regardless of what the teacher wanted. In a geometry class I was the only senior - packed in with sophomores. So I saw a bunch of my teammates and friends who I didn’t really see much. Again, more time to get caught up. This happened again in my chemistry class where I was the only senior alongside all juniors. Finally when I got to my final class - study hall - I got to see my friends and classmates again and had to get caught up all over again.

Realizing this, I just let them talk themselves out - well, not really, they might talk all hour (and do sometimes, despite the lesson I’m trying to start). So far this little ploy of mine has worked great.

Then I spend the next 5-10 minutes visiting with them. I joke, ask questions, comment on their music or dress or siblings and so on. It’s amazing to me how well this works. I’ll stop short of saying that it makes them realize I care because I’m not sure just making small talk with them proves that, but it at least shows them I’m interested in them.

Finally, when 15 minutes of class has been ‘wasted,’ we get going with the lesson. On the good days I can draw them in with what I’ve learned just that day. On the bad days I end up doing the lesson right over them as they talk. But on the average day, they know I’m interested in them and they know I am making the effort to make whatever lesson we are working on personally meaningful and entertaining for them.

So far that has made all the difference.


*****

Second block one student is gone. It has made all the difference in this class. Instead of dealing with him trying to be the center of attention (and my trials dealing with that is a topic for another blog entry), we are working. Just that one kid missing has totally altered the environment. This never ceases to amaze me.

Does it ever work in reverse? If one kid is gone does the whole class just fall apart? I never thought of that.