It is day 4 and I'm still writing, so I haven't lost faith so far.
This lady showed up to my class yesterday and told me she is here to observe a student. I thought she said she came from RCC. I figured she's a student from a community college. Today she clarifies and tells me she is from RSP (Resource Specialist Program). She says she's a sub and she is here because the student got a referral on the first day of school.
Her student needs a lot of prompting but he doesn't cause problems and he is not defiant. He is one of those friendly kids who does work for a minute after being prompted, then gets distracted again. But I learned from looking at his files that he had 24 referrals last semester and they look bad.
She acknowledged that I have a difficult bunch of kids and offered to help in one of the stations during period 2. She asked me to adjust the student's seat so he can be part of her station.
During station rotation practice yesterday, students were supposed to sign in to my code.org class and watch the first video that explains coordinate planes on p. 4 of their notebook. When I checked my code.org account last night, only 8 students were enrolled from my second period class. Twenty three were enrolled from my 4th period class. That means all those other students who are not enrolled didn't take notes on the video yesterday.
So I had to spend about 10 minutes checking to see if all the students were enrolled. Again, this only lasted 10 minutes because I have a peer tutor. Then I started my lesson. We had to play this game, then talk about how many sprites we see, how they are moving, then move on to reading points on the coordinate plan using the sprites. Finally they get to plan their own game by answering this discussion question on Canvas:
You are going to make a game similar to the one you played with by the end of the semester. What characters and background do you want to include? What will they be doing? Describe the game you want to make.
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| screenshots from the CS in Algebra course in code.org |
Of course the big emphasis was in helping them read coordinates and have them understand that the ninja is moving up and down along the y-axis and the dragon and the unicorn is moving sideways along the x-axis.
The lesson for today went great. My students were so excited when it was time to play the game to reverse engineer it.
Despite the amazing lesson, I had a few incidents.
1) A student was singing in class during second period. I pulled him out, had a conversation with him, then left a message for his grandma. 2) Then suddenly the drug dog came to visit and took 2 kids out. Of course more has to happen on day 4 of second semester. 3) This one girl kept refusing to work and kept talking loud so I had to call her mom and grandma. She got mad and told me I'm a horrible teacher because she was asking her friend about my work. I didn't give her a lengthy response since that would give her more ammunition. I said, "OK" and walked away with a smile. What I really wanted to tell her was that it's been 30 minutes since the bell rang and she barely wrote the title in her notebook. Does she really think that I believe she was talking about classwork? 4) Another student in my 5th and 7th period class refused to give me the coordinates for the octopus.
When I called his name, he said, "never mind, I am doing something right now."
I don't know why, but I felt anger.
I have a confession. At that moment, a technology guy was in my room helping another student with his Chromebook issue. I felt the student was disrespecting me on purpose in front of the tech guy. In hindsight, my ego got the better of me. I guess I didn't want the tech guy to think I'm a pushover. So I said, "oh no! You got it wrong. You do as I say in this class!"
The moment the sentence flew out of my mouth, I regretted it. And of course the child started saying things in anger. I prayed that he wouldn't explode because I knew that now I have damaged HIS ego. So I did what I always do. Ignore the kid, pretend nothing happened and keep going with the lesson with a smile. I felt the uneasy vibe in my classroom.
Towards the end of the period, I asked J to talk to me outside. He was hesitant, but he saw that I was smiling and that I was walking towards the door first, expecting him to follow. So of course he followed me out. But he was mumbling all kinds of stuff as he was walking out with me.
As soon as we got outside the classroom, I apologized to him.
"J, I want to first apologize to you. Remember how I told you that you were wrong and that you have to do as I say?" He nodded. "Well, I didn't like the way I said it to you. I am worried that I hurt your feelings. Are you Okay?"
He looked shocked. He nodded.
I was equally shocked that he didn't give me attitude or threaten to go talk to the principal like all children who feel angry do.
Once I felt that he accepted my apology, I asked him why he said what he said to me in class. He told me that he didn't want to give me the coordinates of the octopus because he was taking notes (I am collecting notebooks tomorrow). I explained to him that I really care about him and that it would be easier for both of us if we both try and work together.
He agreed.
We walked back into the classroom and I noticed that J was no longer mumbling negative things about me, the class, school and life. I called his dad after school to let him know what happened. I apologized to his dad as well. Dad thanked me for calling him and asked me to call him whenever something happens. I remembered to log the call on Infinite Campus in case something happens.
That's not all. I had more things that happened today. But I decided that it's best not to talk about the other two.
I have to tell you. I have the biggest respect for the teachers who take on classes that is loaded with students who need extra love. It's only day 4 and I lost my cool for one second. And because I couldn't stay cool for one second, I had to spend about an hour mending my relationship with J.
It looks to me like I need to pray everyday before I walk into class.
And if you are that teacher who's teaching a group of students who need extra love, I want you to know that I thank you. And please remember this.
I. respect. you.
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