Nikèl - Day 5 (3/17)

A Week in the Life of a Teacher

Day 5 or Are You For Real Right Now?

6:45 - 8:30 Before School

I only have one small set of copies to make before school starts, so I quickly head down to the big machine to make my copies before someone else gets there. There are no jams. No paper shortages. Everything goes well.

I have about 5 students coming in this morning for make up tests and essays, so I kinda have to stick around my room until they show up. I have two settled into my room when I go next door to ask the other teacher a question. I’m also eating my breakfast at the same time. I walk back into my room, and one of my first period students is crouched down near the door. He jumps up in my face as I walk back into the room and yells out “HELLO, MS B!” My mouth is full so my scream is pretty muffled, but I jump like 3 feet in the air, yell “Jesus Christ!,” and immediately turn around and leave the room again.

The student runs out after me and yells down the hall, “Come give me a hug, Ms. B!” I yell back, “No! I’m mad at you!” but we’re both laughing as we tell the teacher next door what happened. I go back into my room and apologize to the students that were testing for having disturbed them, but they just laugh and say it’s ok.

I need to talk to a guidance counselor this morning, because a student in their alphabet told me yesterday that his doctor thinks that he may be schizophrenic. I’m not really sure what the protocol is on this. Is it OK to contact his parents and say that I would like to support their son in whatever he needs and how can I help? Or should I not say anything since the parents never reached out to me personally? I go downstairs, but the counselor I’m looking for has not arrived yet.

I try to kill some time downstairs, but my first class starts in 10 minutes. I go back into the guidance office and just ask another counselor that I know. She says it would be fine to contact his parents, and that’s what she would do.

I go back upstairs and as I get to my door, one of my students tells me that my classroom phone is ringing. I run to the phone, answer it, and one of our administrators asks if one of my first period students is in class yet. I say that he isn’t, and then I’m instructed to send him to the administrator’s office when the student arrives.

Almost as soon as I walk outside to greet my students for the day, I see the student the administrator was just looking for. I tell him that he needs to go to the administrator’s office, and the kid is not happy. “Why do I need to go down there?” he asks me. “I don’t know,” I say, “but you need to do your best to stay calm and keep your temper when you’re talking to him.”

The student walks away, and I greet my other students. One of my students has a fake beef with a student in the French class next door. The French teacher and I encourage it, but the French student is always just like “What did I do?!” and we all say “Oh you know what you did!” This goes on for a few minutes, and then the bell rings to start 1st period.

8:30 - 9:16 1st Period Essentials of English

Right as 1st period starts, one of our administrative assistants is walking past my room, so we stop to chat for a second. As we are chatting, the student that was sent to the administrator comes back upstairs, and he is NOT happy. I ask him what happened, and he says he is being sent to ISS. The assistant and I both ask why, but the student says “I don’t know. He won’t tell me!”

I say, “He won’t tell you? What do you mean?” and the student says, “I asked why I gotta go, and he said don’t worry about it. Just get down there.” The assistant and I look at each other, and she asks me if I want her to look it up and she can call us and tell us what’s going on? We both say yes, please. The student goes inside my room, and begins to call his mom to tell her what happened.

I go inside the room, and I see that another one of my students is unhappy. I sit down in the desk next to hers, which also happens to be the desk closest to the door, and I ask her what’s wrong. She says, “Nothing. I don’t feel well,” and I say, “So there is something. Do you need to go to the clinic?”

Before I can get an answer, the administrator who told my student to go to ISS comes into my room, and immediately begins yelling at my student. He does not acknowledge me at all. He just starts yelling at my student. “Get off the phone! Get your stuff! You’re going to ISS now!” When my student says “Man…,” the administrator responds by saying “If you say one more word, it’s going to be so much worse for you!” At this point my student is very angry, so when he yanks his bookbag off the ground, it causes the desk that it’s sitting underneath to topple over. I tell my student that’s it’s fine, and I’ll get the desk. He walks out with the administrator who slams the door on his way out.

My kids are immediately like “Why did he do that?” “What’s his problem?” “Man, if I had been [Student]...”

Almost right after the administrator and the student leave, I get a phone call from the assistant who tell me what my student’s referral was for. It definitely does not sound like my student had been on his best behavior yesterday, but I do not understand why refusing to have a conversation with him about it is a smart plan.

My students then tell me what happened in their English 1 class the day before. Students were throwing paper, and my student got blamed for throwing paper by the teacher, even though he wasn’t throwing paper. I ask them if they’re sure my student wasn’t throwing paper. They tell me, “He really wasn’t! This other kid even admitted to being the one who did it, but [Teacher] just kept yelling at [Student] about it even though he knew it wasn’t him! Then [Student] got mad, yelled some things, left the room, and slammed the door.”

This is frustrating to me. Why not just tell my student why he’s there? Why not just have a conversation with him? Teachers are fallible. But, unfortunately, there can be a real lack of humility among educational professionals sometimes, and the students seem to suffer the most. I’m sure that truth lies somewhere in the middle of these two accounts, but failing to properly address both is an issue.

We settle down, and we spend the rest of class reading and discussing the rest of “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. It goes really well, and the kids get into the story.

9:21 - 10:07 2nd Period Essentials of English

My students arrive to class and most of them get seated and settled pretty quickly. However, there is one students who just can’t seem to get it together. He’s incredibly distracted today. It takes him twice as long as anyone else to get out his bell work. I have to try to re-direct his attention and behavior at least 5 times within the first 5 minutes of class.

He finally gets working, but he’s distracted by the smallest little things. After bell work, I ask them to get out their copies of the story and discussion questions from the day before. I’m trying to get everyone seated, quiet, and focused but the same student will not stop talking. I look at him and say, “I’m at my limit with you. If I have to tell you one more time to be quiet, you’re gone.” Another kid says, “She’s gonna kick you out, man.” He says, “Alright, alright. I’ll focus.” And he does.

We get through the rest of the story and questions, and like the first class they seem be engaged and enjoy the story.

10:15 - 11:05 3rd period English 2 Honors

For the rest of the day, I’ll be running my students through a podcast lesson based on a segment from Radiolab. The segment follows a man named Fritz Haber, and it’s relevant to our unit on World War I. The podcast also brings up moral gray areas surrounding issues like war and discovery/progress as well as the idea of intent vs. impact. It’s usually a really great lesson that goes over really well with the students.

This first class gets really into it, and there’s a lot of back and forth in the class on the issues raised in the podcast. We have a pretty lively discussion and nothing too crazy happens.

11:07 - 11:53 4th period English 2 Honors

Bracket Boy immediately comes into 4th, and says “Your bracket is fire, Ms. B! Aren’t you glad you did it?” I shrug, and say “Yeah, I guess.” I think he was expecting more enthusiasm.

I get them seated and focused as soon as possible, because this class can talk, and I know they’ll have a lot to say about the podcast. I want to make sure we finish.

Sure enough, a lively conversation goes on for the entire class period, and the students have very insightful things to say on the questions that are raised. They also respectfully disagree with each other as well, which I always consider to be a win.

12:00 - 12:46 5th period English 2 Honors

This class is dead. They won’t talk at all. It’s frustrating coming from a class that had all the things to say to a class that won’t talk. I say as much, and it encourages some of them to step up their game and contribute to the conversation. We eventually end up having a decent conversation, but it’s not as good as my previous classes.

12:46 - 1:15 LUNCH

I spend most of my lunch chatting with the assistant that helped me out this morning when we didn’t know why student was being sent to ISS. I went to her office and thanked her for her help, and we started chatting for a bit about the state of the school and things. I go back to my classroom and get ready for the next class to come in.

1:15 - 2:01 6th Period English 2 Honors

I start this class off by saying that the previous class was not super talkative and needed them to put on their “focus hats” and get pumped to have a discussion. As I say this a few kids mime putting on a hat, while another kid mimes taking a hat off. It’s pretty funny. I start introducing the lecture, and the kid that took his hat off says “Hold up,” and puts his hat back on.

We get to the first stopping point of the podcast, and I ask them some questions, and they give me nothing back. I’m just like “Are y’all for real? I already told you that I needed y’all to get it together and talk, and now you’re not saying anything.”

That seems to do the trick, The rest of the class flies by, and they have a lot to say, including students who don’t normally participate as much.

2:01 - 3:45 PLANNING

The student that took off his “focus hat” makes up a test during the first half of my planning block, and I spend the second half venting to another teacher about what happened in my room this morning. My planning period seems to disappear pretty quickly. I’m exhausted, and I have a headache.