Looking Ahead

Soo...this last week was really weird. And this next week will be even weirder.

I'm just going to go ahead and jump into my highlights of the week:

- So, remember when I said I went off on one of my classes and wrote up two students because of bad behavior and making fun of one of my special ed students? Well, turns out the student that was causing all the trouble is transferring to a new school this coming week. Am I happy about that? Actually, no. After being written up and finally getting her to open up a little bit and giving her some freedom and noticing how smart she actually is, she became much more tolerable and kind of a fun student. This whole week she would come by my classroom when she was having difficulty with other teachers and she would just sit there quietly minding her own business (unlike normal) and talk briefly before leaving for her next class.

When she told me she was transferring and it was the last time I'd see her, I was actually kind of upset. This blows my mind, because 2 weeks ago I was constantly irritated and may have wished for her to transfer. But I guess things happen, and who knows, with the transfer rate these schools have down here, she may be back.

- So speaking of that student transferring, out of that same class, 3 more students have transferred schools. I now only have 11 or 12 students in that class. Another student was transferred out because I don't have a co-teacher in there. It's almost like all of the personality in that class is now gone, and I'm left with a skeleton of what once was. Maybe I'll get the rest of these students to rally and shine (their grades have certainly gone up...now ranking 2nd overall of all my classes).

- This Friday was another Friday Test Day! FTD's are my favorite, because it's almost like having a 3-day weekend, oh wait, that would mean this one was a 4-day weekend (THANK YOU CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS FOR "DISCOVERING" AMERICA!). Overall, my classes did better on this test than the first one. Out of 15, my best class had a class average of 11.5. The next averages were 11.3, 10.6, 9.9, 9.9, and 9.2. That 9.2 realllly kills me. This class has recently become my problem-filled class, so we'll see what kind of direction they go over the next couple weeks. Hopefully up.

- This class got so bad that I now have an agreement with one of the other math teachers who has no 8th period that she will stop in once every week to be my hardcore disciplinarian. So now, if any students are acting up, "I'll send you to Ms. Massey!". Hopefully it works and they start acting right. It worked so far with one kid!

- Like I said before, Christopher Columbus may be the greatest guy ever, because he gave me an extra day to relax this weekend and get stuff done. It also meant that I got a lot of time to hang out with someone new, as well as meeting Peter's family and having a great time!

- And finally, on Thursday during 8th period my students came in freaking out and non-stop talking about something very inappropriate for school. A school shooting. Apparently there has been a threat from one of the San Antonio "Wolfpacks" (a group of high school students whose social lives surround pinning tails on their backs and wearing weird contacts and calling themselves werewolves). These wolfpacks have been the center of a lot of controversy in San Antonio right now: two of them who went to a San Antonio High School committed suicide a couple weeks ago, and they have increasingly been involved in criminal activity. So essentially they are gangs. Anyway, so there is a threat that a so-called wolfpack is planning a shooting at my high school as well as a couple others on Tuesday.

As a human being, this kind of talk terrifies me. As a teacher, its my responsibility to make my students feel safe and continue to teach them. This made it very difficult. The best thing I could do was say that if they were all talking about it so much, that for sure we would have enough security in place to keep us safe (whether I really believe that or not is a different story). On Friday afternoon the principal came over the intercom to address the student body of an investigation, as well as sent a letter home with every student to give to their parents. What this tells me is that its not just some empty threat but has some substance to it. Which worries me. All I know is I'm keeping my door locked on Tuesday and putting something up over the window so if we go into lockdown, my students and myself are the most safe in the school.

- On the other hand, I will only be teaching 2 days this week. Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday I have to administer PSAT testing for the first half of the day, giving me time with only two of my classes, so I'll have to come up with something to fill time. On Thursday I have a new teacher training, so I will be out the whole day. Kinda nice. But not so nice for the start of the 3rd unit.

Jillian will be in town in 5 days!

Mr. Hart's Got Moves!

The 6th week is done and grades are in. All students involved in UIL activities (sports, competition-type clubs) had to have a 75% or higher at 6 weeks in order to have eligibility. So, to say the least, it was a lonnnnnggg week. Luckily, I had some extra days because I got ahead in the curriculum. But, the hard part was getting students to turn their stuff in! For some reason these students have a mentality that homework is optional, and they believe that by not turning in homework they can still pass and that it won't have any effect on their grades. WRONG.

Currently, I have a 37.5% failing rate out of 136 total students. In two of my classes, over 50% of the students are failing. This is unacceptable and really irritates me. My job is to turn this around, but I can't figure it out! I will have to investigate into this. In the mean time, here is my list of things that have happened this week:

- Tuesday I had a sub because I filled in for my department chair at the LIT training over ELPS and how to integrate them into the classroom effectively. Yeah, acronyms that make no sense to you, now you know how I felt the entire day. On the flip side, I did get an hour and a half for lunch and got out an hour earlier than the typical school day.

- I worked on getting my students to turn stuff in all week, talk about exhausting!

- I had a very interesting argument with a student about how he was not passing, and was not in his previous class before. Things got intense, and the end result was that he stopped talking and began working on his work. That same class another student got upset with me being strict and announced that he was transferring classes and going to the counselor right that moment. He left, but I knew the counselor's would send him back. It was so awesome to see him come back in all dejected that he got turned away from the counselor's office. I later had a mature conversation with him about his issues with the class and how I can improve. I think the outcome will be productive.

- I led my students through a lesson on how to create goals and make definite action steps to accomplish those goals. In the meantime, I made some of my own, hopefully it helps me out and I can get things going smoothly!

- So Fridays are the only day of the week that we can dress casually (which I take full advantage of), but every Friday also has a pep rally with a theme. So, if there is a theme, students and teachers can dress accordingly. This Friday's pep rally: nerds. Keep in mind that I haven't dressed up for a "spirit day" since I was in high school. I took full advantage of it and pulled out all my nerdy styles and showed up to school with jeans to my belly button, pants rolled up with long socks, tucked in white shirt, poorly tied tie, glasses with tape in the middle. Kids were staring at me and laughing and calling me nerd all day--and I loved it!

- In addition to the dressing like a nerd, at the pep rally they asked all teachers dressed as nerds to come to the front in front of everyone. Of course I got pushed out there. Then they tell us we are having a "dance off". I'm sorry, but everyone knows this white boy can't dance! Lo and behold, I ended up winning the first round with some nifty hip movements that made the students go wild, then ended up getting 2nd overall. My kids loved it and proclaimed when they got to class "I saw you dancing today Mr. Hart! I cheered for you loud!" That definitely made my week a million times better. If only I could dress like a nerd and win 2nd place in a dance off every week.

That's really all that I have: grades, training, and pep rally! Let's see what next week brings.

13 days until Jillian is here!

Silencio! No sabes espanol?

Lonnnnng week. So much going on outside of the normal school day to make the normal school day hard to get through.

Here is what happened the last week, as well as some highlights:

- I had administration support to help me solve the problems in my 5th period, it is now workable and improving.

- I had a meeting Monday night from 6-9pm, which is pretty much right after work (this means I didn't get to go to the gym).

- I had a meeting Tuesday from 6-7:30pm, so again I didn't get to go to the gym.

- Wednesday I was being observed for a full 45 minutes by our certification partner...let's talk about an overload of preparation and too little time because of meetings the previous 2 nights.

- Thursday I was observed by TFA for a full 45 minutes because I had asked them to in order to help with my 5th period issues. Things went well and I have some GREAT action steps to take going forward.

- Dan came into town Tuesday night, and I got to hang out with him each night after my gym and planning times (aka I spent way more money than I usually have, goodbye September paycheck!). But it was definitely worth it, I was calmed down a little bit because having someone from home around made me feel more comfortable and relaxed. Thanks for coming Dan!

- My students are beginning to be more comfortable with me and sharing some really personal information. I appreciate that they feel comfortable coming to me to speak, but I don't know what to say back! I have never had these rough experiences they are having or have had, and its difficult for me to sympathize with them. I'm sure I'll get better with this.

- I am still really struggling with the day-to-day planning and executing, hopefully some new strategies given to me will help me out, because this stress and lack of sleep is killing me!

- Friday was a test day (which means before school Brenna and I go to Starbucks to get a big iced coffee and sip on it and grade and students take their tests in silence (best days ever).

- One of my classes was a little rowdy as the test was being handed out, so I said "Silencio!" Some of my students were confused so I replied "No sabes espanol? Porque no?" Then another students replied "Clase, silencio por favor!" and I said "gracias". It was a little taste of using my Spanish-speaking skills and shocking my students because they still don't understand that this white boy knows Spanish.

- I assigned a project this week (draw a tesselation of congruent triangles into a bigger picture). Some of my students made some amazing tesselations, and then half of the class still forgot to turn it in although I gave them ALL week to do it AND any time after they completed the test. I need to figure this out...

Really, it was a super busy week, but I also didn't have any terrible experiences like previous weeks. Hopefully it's a sign that better things are to come? We'll see...

Rough Week 4

So, to start this week off I was pretty sure I had finally figured at least part of this teaching thing out. I was determined to have a good week for once-to be optimistic through it all.

So, to sum up how it went, I am going to give you my weekly list of stuff that happened:

- I was optimistic this week because I was getting one day off to do some professional training.

- This day of professional training was actually very fun and made me feel better about my teaching (much needed)

- I had to make subsititute plans for the first time, apparently they were too detailed because veteran teachers laughed at me when I showed them the one sheet of paper with instructions on it for the sub.

- My substitute plans apparently worked. I received work from every class like I asked, nothing was stolen, and nothing was in complete shambles when I got back that afternoon for tutoring.

- My students complained as I was walking in after school got out that class was boring without me there and they were thankful that I was back (ego boost!)

- I had one student come in for after school tutoring. It went great and I could see the light bulb turn on for him, he bragged to the class how helpful it was, too.

- Wednesday came to an end, and I had to start planning for the final 2 days of the week. This time well-rested.

- Thursday I was super optimistic, having fun conversations with my first 4 classes and everyone was having a great time.

- My 5th period came around. THE 5th period. Smallest class. Biggest problems.

- Someone called one of my special education students retarded. Then it turned into a tidal wave of students saying this student was dumb, retarded, and stupid. I was furious.

- I proceeded to do a very nontraditional approach to explaining to my students why we should not use offensive words/terms in my classroom. I wrote every single offensive word they could think of on the board, sternly told them that they would NEVER use any of these words again because I would not tolerate them.

- 5th period decided they would meet me with resistance, some students citing that the word "the" was offensive to them. Unacceptable.

- I allowed 5th period to sit in silence for the final 10 minutes of class while I did breathing exercises to regain my composure.

- I learned a lesson, this type of talk with my students needs to happen on day 1 next year.

- After school we had an emergency operations meeting, some things were said/done that deeply offended me and some friends. As this is a public blog, I will not go into detail. Ask me personally if you want to know more. Long story short, I was so offended by the end of it that I was nearly in tears.

- Friday comes back around, most of my classes go superbly.

- 5th period: talking + laughing + not following instructions + talking back + not reacting to my warnings or punishments at all + telling me they would love to go to the principal's office + telling me they will write the referral for me + me losing my composure = 2 written referrals for removal from classroom (one to a student whose name does NOT match the attitude in any way) and a very very angry Mr. Hart.

- I had to leave school during my conference period just to cool down. I hope that I can recapture my students in that class that really want to learn and are obviously frustrated with the few that keep them from enjoying it. Hopefully, I'll also capture those that don't care right now and hopefully I can help them change and make a difference in their lives.

- Immediately after school I left for Dallas (where I am now at the Starbucks in the Downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel), I had to get away from San Antonio for a little bit.

BUT, congratulations to my Golden Bear Football team for beating the Sam Houston Hurricanes last night!

Week 3

First off, I just want to say how excited I am that it is now football season. My TV will only take a break from football for the True Blood season finale tomorrow.

This week was rough. After an amazing, much-needed 3-day Labor Day weekend, I went into the week energized, optimistic, and excited that it was a test week (meaning one day for review and one day for a test). After the first 2 days I was sure I was going to break. Review day went terribly, and then finally I had my day of silence during the test.

So things that happened this week:

- Last week I mentioned to some of my classes that I was kind of addicted to a Katy Perry song (Teenage Dream). After the test this week, I turned on the radio and Teenage Dream was on, so I faked dancing a little bit and my students asked me if I went clubbing. I said "absolutely not, I don't have enough money, I dance at home". They believed me.

- The average test score of all my classes was 69% (one class had a 78% average)...and somehow I am actually kinda proud of this.

- 5th period, one of my students brought a 50-piece Chicken McNugget meal to class. The first 5 minutes of class then turned into a Chicken McNugget all-out feast instead of taking their test.

- One student who has only been to my class 3 times this semester whispered to a friend "I hate this class." I proceeded to stop what I was doing, look at this student and say "(Name here), you have been to this class only 3 times, how would you possibly know that you hate this class?" She stayed quiet and the rest of the class did an "Oh dannnnnggg" laughing.

- I was really happy when one of my students was having a bad day, because it meant they were quiet during class and did the work when asked.

- I asked students to write down what they learned so far in this class and what they struggle with and my student responses were all over the place:
- I learn a lot.
- The most important thing I've learned in my 15 years of life is how to learn.
- I struggle with...
- I learned lines and angles.
- I struggle with remembering things after class, I think I have dyslex in my head.
- I've learned more in this class than I did all last year.

Reading those responses, though it took forever, was easily the highlight of my week. But now, I need to do some grading, hasta luego!

Love Note!

__________

It's really hard to write this letter: I want it to be perfect like you . That last one felt really shallow, like I was trying to hard to copy yours and make it romantic, though every single word is true without a doubt!

You see, there are so many reasons why I love you, so many things that make you perfect and so many things I have to tell you! A thousand letters wouldn't be enough to describe there feelings. Of course there's generic reasons; your cute and smart and funny, but there's so much moer to you than meets the eye (on the side of the page: I love you more than anything in the world ). Conversations with you are never boring, you always have something interesting to say, whether we're talking about pokemon or the inside of a VCR. You're so cute too, not just appearance-wise, but the way you act. You're affectionate and so child-like! I love it!

Your really sensitive too. The smallest thing affects your mood. It's not a bad thing so don't worry! Your sensitivity is one of my favorite things about you. But there are times when you don't say things because you think you'll annoy me. < : / Don't think that anymore kay? You can tell me anything, even if it's really small like you stepped on a ladybug. I wanna know all about your day and what happened and why.

If only someone had written me this letter in high school, I would have been tied down so fast! And oh yeah, I also wish that whoever wrote this letter would have put as much effort into my class as they did writing it during class...oops.

Gotta love high school!

2 weeks down...about 2 years left

Wow. Talk about an emotional ride right now. Teaching is so much harder than I ever anticipated. It doesn't help that I only had 5 weeks of training before jumping in the classroom and being expected to follow a very structured curriculum while being told that I also need to push my students harder and beyond, and not leaving them with the bare minimum. Its supposed to be a 9-5 job, and I find myself having a 7:45 to 6 job. Ouch. That hurts my sleep a little bit.

So now that I ranted a little bit, I will give you all my weekly bullet points:

- My classroom management with classes of around 30 kids is excellent; with 13 kids its terrible.

- I have one period every day that I dread going to, this attitude needs to change or my year will be even worse.

- What happened to having time on the weekdays to watch TV or relax? I have not experienced it yet.

- One of my students told me that my class (3rd period) was the first class she had been to all day because she had a dentist appointment in the morning, but wanted to make sure she came because she liked my class.

- One of my students was promoted to the varsity football team this past week, and he gave me his jersey to wear on Friday!

- I started out the week really dreading going to school and nearly having a breakdown, then it finally rained and stormed and my attitude changed completely.

- 3 day weekends are amazing and should happen EVERY weekend.

- I told my students that my favorite song on the radio because its so catchy is Teenage Dream...all they said was "at least it's not pretty boy swag, Mr. Hart!" I then proceeded to try my best at doing the pretty boy swag.

- My students think I'm the biggest nerd in the world, and I love it. They also think that I'm in my late 20's or early 30's. HA!

- I am not completely dreading this week, as it is only 4 days and Friday I am giving a test (and most of the planning is already done! Way to go department collaboration.)

- When students say "all you have to do is grade" I want to punch them in the face. I know I used to say the same thing, but dang! Grading takes forever, as well as planning. I am now sorry to every teacher I told that to in my days as a student.

That's my weekly update! If you have any specific questions or would like to hear about a certain part of my new life, just ask me!