Lauren

I was presenting a powerpoint introducing myself to my 4th hour class, and I was showing them pictures of my time studying abroad. Toward the end of the presentation, students began asking me questions about life overseas. One student asked me if I was able to speak the 5 or 6 different languages of all the countries I have visited. I answered no, but before I was able to respond fully, the co-teacher (not my CT) jumped in and said, "everyone in those countries speak English anyway." I wanted to go in depth with my students and explain to them how I was able to communicate with others without speaking their language, but things moved quickly and we were running out of classtime overall. I regret not correcting this response.
 * 9/13/10**
 * Situation**

From my interactions with this co-teacher thus far, I have gathered she is quite abrasive and hostile toward students. I think this co-teacher is too focused on keeping up her authoratative role that she doesn't allow students to know her. My assumption is that since she feels strongly about this, when she saw students wanting to know me, she tried to shut the situation down. I also think she has a hard time listening carefully and validating questions she may feel are off topic.
 * Why Did This Happen, What Does It Mean, and What Are the Implications?**

I want students to see that I feel at home in (and around) the world and what wonderful opportunities wait for them outside of their own city. I would like to explain the importance of communication and language to the students, and I wish I would have corrected the co-teacher and explained myself to the students.

Lauren, how has it gone with this teacher this week? I'm eager to hear. -Lindsay Ellis

Our 2nd hour class was being a bit unruly (as usual) and my CT had finally had it. She told the class no one was to leave until they were sitting in their seats silently and dismissed personally by herself. Suddenly, Tenia came thundering from the back of the room to the front on her way out the door without having been dismissed. A student yelled to her, "you can't leave unless the teacher says!" Tenia turned on her heel in front of the entire room and yelled, "I don't give a fuck what the teacher says!" and stormed out the door. In my head, my jaw dropped to the ground like a cartoon character. My CT said "It looks like I'll be calling her house because she has lost her mind." She then dismissed the class and luckily we were able to discuss the incident, as we have 3rd hour prep. My CT noted never having problems with Tenia before, and she felt this was an uncharacteristic move, but regardless she would have to call her parents to inform them of the outburst. Tenia came back into our class 30minutes later with her counselor and explained herself. Apparently the students in the row in front of her had been bullying her, calling her names and intentionally making her feel miserable. When my CT said everyone needed to wait in their seat, Tenia couldn't take it anymore and felt the overwhelming urge to exit the room.
 * 9/20/10**
 * Situation**

Looking through the lenses, I can recognize this occurred because Tenia did not feel safe, and she was experiencing verbal abuse and teasing (bullying). This kind of behavior is something I should have had my ears open to, and I regret that I wasn't able to step in for Tenia before the problems escalated and told the students to stop teasing her. The bigger issue for me here, though, is that Tenia probably doesn't trust that teachers have a process for identifying, responding to, and reporting bullying. I think if Tenia knew my CT or myself were able to handle these situations, she would have been able to alert us and have us shut the issue down. It could also be an instance where Tenia didn't want to report anything because she would only be teased more...but I think it's crucial for students to know teachers have a way to address this issues and there is a zero tolerance policy. This will hopefully make them feel safe.
 * Why Did This Happen, What Does It Mean, and What Are the Implications?**

Hi Lauren, How are you feeling? How many days of school have you missed? I hope you're on your feet again and that we will see you in class today. I see you're getting behind in your work, and I look forward to helping you catch up. This story about Tenia is so powerful, such a great illustration of the usually-present underlying factors in students' misbehavior. I'm so glad that you heard from Tenia again, and came to understand what happened. Imagine if she had never returned and your CT had called home not knowing the back-story. That might not have helped Tenia feel safe at school. I'm glad the story ended the way that it did. -LE Hi Lauren--Where are you? I'm looking forward to reading your posts! Sorry, I totally forgot to post this!

I can't say Riverside Middle School-as a professional center- is warm and welcoming. I am so thankful to have the CT that I do--she is warm and kind and passionate for her profession and her students. However, I have not noticed another teacher like her in the building. Only a few of the teachers acknowledge me in the hallways, and an even smaller portion have bothered to ask my name. The English department has 3rd hour prep with the idea that we can all get together and plan. One month in, though, and I have never seen another teacher from the department in our class or vice versa. I feel Riverside is cold and each teacher is only concerned with their own classroom agenda. Focusing on the lens of "a family of teachers," I have realized Riverside is not a family. I know I'm "just a" TA, but the fact that no one has any interest in who I am or what I'm doing for the kids is astounding. I think each department should stay in constant communication regarding curriculum and student achievement/behavior in order to best serve the students. However, everything seems disjointed and scattered. I don't feel apart of a family at all, and I can only hope to work in a building with a team spirit in the future. Today I was approaced by a man in a suit in my classroom. He introduced himself in a way that implied I should know who he was, but I did not. I had just handed back an old packet we gave students as busy work when there was a sub about a month and a half ago, so the students had completely forgotten what it was even about. My CT and I had no intentions of grading this packet, but when few students turned it in, we decided to put it in the gradebook. The official man was asking me about the significance of this packet. I began to tell him it tied into our unit on kindness, and the packet was focused on reading comprehension for MEAP preparations. He fired off with one million questions and I struggled to make the packet sound important. Later I found out he's someone who gets called in when schools are failing to see if the students/teachers are doing what they are supposed to be doing. I felt angry that he came in and saw the horrible packet we were forced to do for MEAP prep and busy work. What I wanted to tell him is that the packet was a total time-killer, but instead I had to make it sound relevant. Since we are so pressed for time, my CT often tells students "we don't have time to get into this, we have to blaze through and move on." Obviously, my CT is overwhelmed with the number of standards she is required to hit, because there are far too many. We have not been able to teach any of our curriculum because there has been so much testing going on, and all of the test prep is very dull. My CT feels like the school keeps pushing unnecessary curriculum on her and she doesn't have time to a) teach it, and b) teach it well. She told me she is considering switching out of GRPS because of the administrators and the ridiculous things they keep pushing on her. We had the students "write" 2 essays for MEAP prep, but we didn't have time to do them in class, so we wrote a group essay on the ELMO and everyone copied it down for points. The kids will be completely unprepared for their writing MEAP this week, because they have not written a single thing on their own. We have too much to do in too little time.
 * 10/4/10**
 * Situation**
 * Why Did This Happen, What Does It Mean, and What Are the Implications?**
 * 10/11/10 ** ** Situation **
 * Why Did This Happen, What Does It Mean, and What Are the Implications?**

Thank you for painting such a vivid description! It's so sad. Good teachers leave because the administration is so discouraging. I wish I knew the administration's perspective. I can't fathom it, and wish I could. Again, I feel the loss of these students acutely. -LE

10/18 Situation The curriculum I have been working with does not allow teachers to get to know students personally. Our writing has been limits to MEAP prep essays. One such essay required students to write 2 things they liked and 2 things they disliked, and the other was a cause and effect essay. For each essay, due to time constraints, my CT wrote an essay on the ELMO and students copied her words down. There was no personal input or original thought - students were to copy the essays to see the format of what they would see on the MEAP.

Implications My students also occasionally have a class journal where they respond to warm-up questions. One student wrote he often goes hungry at home; this completely blew me away. This knowledge changed teh way I approach him, and has fosteres an understanding between the two of us. Never has it been more clear to me the importance of knowing your students personally and having the curriculum that allows it.

L auren, I wonder why there was not time for your CT to (a) model a MEAP prep essay and then (b) have students try one, and then (c) have time to share: 20, 20, 20 minutes. Or even 10, 10, 20. How long are your classes? Are students so slow to settle down and pay attention that there is not much time left? It certainly seems that you are getting a glimpse of a school in crisis. When can I come observe alongside you, even just to see and get to know your students a bit?

10/25 Situation This year, my CT has totally been slacking when it comes to grading. I finally got sick of seeing the bins full of papers, so I stayed at school 5 hours later than I should have and nearly finished all 5 classes. Passing back these papers has been a total pain in the butt, but what shocked me more was seeing students barely glance at the grade they had received (usually poor scores) and moving on with their day. "How can they fail blatantly and not care?!" I thought. I have been adamant about staying on top of the grading ever since, not only because I hate clutter, but because I want the students to see their grade results sooner. The things I had been passing back were weeks old...of course they didn't care about the grade, they didn't even remember what the assignment was. Sick and tired of my students not participating/caring about grades, when they turned in their warm ups (6points) in 2nd hour, I graded them immediately and handed them back 30minutes later. Much to my surprise, there was an uproar when the majority of students showed anger at their 0's. My CT and I were able to immediately address the issue and show students the results of their choices.

Implication This proved to me that quick feedback is crucial for learning. Also, I realize feedback needs to be specific. I saw what our co-teacher was writing on writing prompts at the end of the essays, "need to improve sentence structure/clarity." What does that mean? And where? Students need to see exactly where they are making mistakes and where they can improve with specific feedback. We forget students need to be guided with clear instructions, so writing "awkward" on a paper isn't enough. How/why is it awkward? Is there no subject/verb agreement? We have to invest the time in giving them specific feedback quickly to enhance learning.

Yes! While there are lots of structural (school and culture) challenges that your CT has to face, and she is not well supported, you have hit upon issues here that ARE within her/your control. Great job identifying a way to engage students more--by giving feedback more promptly, more personally and more concretely than a grade two weeks after the lesson or a single word "awkward" rather than a personal response ("As I read I wondered...") to a piece of writing. Again, really well done putting in those 5 hours to grade and staying on top of grading more promptly since then.