3 weeks or less to go!

It has been a month since I last posted and life has run along just fine - I think. My only problem has been the yearbook but I am getting there. I am realizing what needs to be done and I will talk to the school head in a couple of weeks. Maybe we can change it for next year.

It is so funny in a weird sort of way. Here we are, 15 days until the end of school. I have loved every minute except that the administration is always watching me. No matter what I do or say, someone is telling the office – the wrong thing – just trying to get me in trouble.

The year is nearly over and I really can’t wait. I am so looking forward to my ‘new’ class of eighth graders. I have known them for two years now and they know me. We get along so well. Sure there are those “strange” children but I still like even them. I cannot wait to begin teaching them.

Having signed my contract at least tells me that I must be okay in someone’s eyes. I have to my middle school compadres that I don’t want to speak at this year’s graduation but I REALLY want to get involved with the newest class.

After talking to my teaching buddies, they have all said that even after 20+ years they are still not “friend” with the office. They feel on the ‘outside looking in’ as they say. Okay, I have over gone through two years so I don’t really feel bad.

In 15 days I will be ready for a new year and I hate to say it but I am already putting my calendar together with what I want to teach and the order of what I have planned. I take tons of things from TpT and then convert them over to Louisiana history and I have tried many of them out this year. I have tweaked several of them, And even tossed a few of them away since they “didn’t work” with my current bunch.

But I only have 15 days until I feel RENEWED and ready to really “TEACH”.

More of the same

IT is the “next” quarter and here we go again. The same old student is not doing his work, lying to this mother, lying to the assistant principal, trying to lie to me, and everyone is believing him – except me. He is telling people that he turned his work in and I must have lost it - NOT TRUE or either count.

I have had enough. His mother came in a couple of days ago in tears because she “saw him working on the assignment” but she never saw him turn it in. I did – didn’t see him turn it in. All this forced me to go through everything three different times – with no luck. I have taught 25 years and I have NEVER lost anyone’s work EVER! No matter what this kid says, I know my practices and he did not turn his work in resulting with a “0”.

The teacher who worked with him last year tells me that he tried this last year and the year before. Other teacher’s that have had him or currently have him tell the same story. The kid is a compulsive liar and he is mad because he is being held accountable by a “new guy” who won’t let him slide by.

All I want is to get the work and stop bitching about it, talke your punishment and get over it. Own up to your being lazy but he won’t. He has his momma – a fellow teacher – believing every word out of his mouth.

I don’t and won’t fall for his tricks.

Lies, Lies, Lies

I have been spending the last 24 hours wondering if I did the right thing when I left public school. Coming to this private school has turned out to be problem after problem after problem. Oh I know the drill. I have been teaching for 23 years before I came here. I have been coaching young girls for more than 30 years. At NO TIME has anyone ever accused me of anything that would jeopardized my upstanding behavior.

However, since I have taken the job here at this private school there has been nothing but complaints – none of which are true – all flat out lies – but they are getting back to the principal and I am being called into her office about these complaints.

Yesterday’s was the most flagrant and NON-TRUE of all but I am still on the receiving end. According this one student’s mother, the students told her that I held her back after class, grabbed her by the shoulders and told her that I expected more out of her and I liked her but she was not working up to the standards in class. What could be so wrong about this?

One, I have NEVER held a student back after class. Two, it was on Monday while we are out in the pod. Three, she was headed to recess. Four, there were two other boys still in the classroom – which are always the last one’s out due to problems with their book sacks. Five, she is already making a 100 in class and has done everything I have ever asked of her. Six, her brother was in my calls last year and he and I worked well together. Seven, – oh heck, you get the point! Lies, lies, lies. And why? For what reason”?

She made the mistake of telling about a class were she has NEVER been the last one out, there are student’s in the classroom after her, and I have to go unlock the outside building door just to let them into the building because they are so-o-o-o slow. Why would I even talk to her about her grades since she is making the top grade for this quarter she could get? Lies, lie, lies.

I have coached for years and years and no one has ever complained about me and my girls. I have taught for years and there has never been a complaint from any principal about me, my work, whant I have done for the students, my love of teaching, the field trips I have taken them on, nothing. Nothing until I came here.

I honestly believe it is just this group of girls. I dealt which their lies last year and again this year. I am the new guy so I get all the blame. The sixth and seventh graders love the help and encouragement I get them everytime they ask. They know me as a great teacher and love the job I do. They have never said anything to tarnish my reputation but this current group of 8^th grade girls is terrible. The boys all love me and work hard to do well in class. Some of the girls have worked super hard and know what is going on and why these other girls are the way they are but won’t go and tell.

At lunch yesterday I stopped and asked the two boys who were “last out” on Monday if they remembered and YES they did. One even told me he knew he was last out because of his “blasted rolling book sack and dropping stuff allover”.

Why did I decide to leave the public school? I had a good thing going and I should have stayed!

Tourette’s

Somebody noticed. Finally. One of our teachers finally emailed the “team” last night…

“We had a long night with (student). Hopefully, some good came out of it. He was angry about doing homework--as usual. He also spends a lot of time telling us that our information about his homework is wrong—another words, he is backed in a corner and he tries to lie his way out of it. Long story short: he tore up the Civil War letter he was writing; blamed me for driving him to it; I got in his face, like you told me to (teacher) :) and said that I am fed up. I began looking up information online about military schools. He broke down and cried so hard that he could not catch his breath. He agreed to talk but only wanted to talk to me.

I had a LONG discussion about what is bothering him--it is all personal problems between Alex and some people from (excelerated) Program. Something happened over the summer that he has been upset about all year. He said that it is on his mind constantly and he cannot focus on anything else. He was very vulnerable and honest during this conversation. He even told me that by the end of the day, he has so much pent-up frustration that he ends up taking it out on me.

After all of the drama died down, he willingly worked on the Civil War letter and finished it. Glad it is done but once again it will be turned in late. He really did study for the science test that he failed. I do not know what went wrong there. I thought things were improving in English but now he has a D.

Tomorrow, (his dad) is calling (student)’s doctor to get (student) back on ADHD medicine. We took him off it because his Tourette’s seems to flare up when he is on it. Also, he was not showing any signs of being more focused. The ticks are noisy sometimes and drives other people crazy. Yet, maybe it will help pull him through the rest of the year. He does not think it will but said that he is willing to try--even with the tick issue.

We'll see...Thanks for all your support. I would be completely lost without you.”

So it was – and never has been – just me but I was getting the blame. For all of it. I am going to save this email because it verifies my own case. I WANT to help this young man. He and his dad have talked several times in the past about his son. The mom and I have been friends for years and my wife has known her for years. I am not trying to crucify him; I just want to get him to work and on to high school.

But it seems EVERYONE has had problems. As I have talked to other teachers, his work as suffered big time and in most of them he currently has a “U” – mine too.

I really like this young man and he makes my day everyday. He jokes, laughs, and tells some great stories. I hope he gets the help he needs.

SpEd or not to SpEd

What do you do when you REALLY want to help some students but the administration will not let you? From past experience, I know what they need and I know OW to help them, but I am being turned away every chance I try to do something. I know what a REAL 504 plan looks like and WHAT it does, I know what a REAL SpEd form should do but according to my school “we don’t have special education students”. I KNOW better but my hands are tired.

I know that when these students hit the public school system next year they will be referred and evaluated but according to “OUR” school they are not SpEd nor are they listed as 504. Sure we have a 504 form but it is not the same form the public school uses nor is it accomplishing what it SHOULD accomplish!

My hands feel so tired every day so I just have to make the best of a back situation. According to my school “we have the post top students in the area” but I know that is not so. We have the most academically motivated students in the area”, which I know is not true. “Our students will all go to college and become doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc, I also know that is not true”. It might have ben true years ago but over the last 10 years or so they have filled the enrollment with whoever will pay the bills.

They need to open their eyes and smell the roses and the stink weeds. Look around you. We have the same student population that the public schools have, drawn from the same students the public schools have. Maybe not as many of the ones the public school has to deal with but we DO have them!

Sooner than they want to, this school better open their eyes. I have only been here a year and a half and I see students that in my ‘old school’ would have been classified as special ed or at least lebeled as 504 and helped through the system. I don’t have a problem helping. I started in SpEd and over the years I have always worked with Sped teachers because they knew I would help these kids get the education t hey would need. But here I am being told to shut up and just go with the flow. I don’t like that.

Last year I had a students who is now paying for her educational problems in high school. This year I have four students will pay big time in high school if they get there. Which is another thing. THEY WILL GET THERE because we are not allowed to fail them because mom and dad have paid big money for them to get an education.

This is so sad but what can I do? I can only do so much before I am the one to lose my job. And that would do the others any good!

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As I read thru many of the other blogs here I keep finding that most NEVER post anything. Now some do, but MOST don't.

Tweaking

I have been shopping around TpT for the last couple of weeks looking for things that I can “tweak” and make my own. It is not because the items are not good enough; it is because NONE of them fit my needs. You know that feeling. At least that’s the way my own brain works. I? NEVER tweak them then post them back on TpT but after I tweak them I may sent the “tweaked” item to a colleague for them to try out and use.

I am sorry but if I bought the item, spent my own time tweaking them and making it fit Louisiana history then I figure I will share it. I have done the same thing for the Civil War projects I have found, explorer’s projects, newspaper items, graphic novel ideas, etc. They all seem to have worked well with my own class but I want someone else to try them. Most have been successful with them also.

There are so many on TpT and some I have found on the elementary side and tweaked them UP and some I found on the high school side which I had to tweak DOWN just a bit. They all have work well. Some I have used and then I had to tweak them again because they just did not work well in my own environment but “hey, what can I say”. It is “live and learn”.

It is a lot like this blog. I wish I knew what would make people read and learn from it but people don’t so I just go on and do “my thing” and help the other teacher here in Louisiana – and there are lots of us who need info about I state and projects worksheets, lesson, power-points, etc and I just keep on sharing them. At some point in the future I will pass on to the classroom in the sky and people will have to do without my assistance.

But for now I will just keep on ‘reinventing’ and ‘tweaking’ thing I buy and making them fit Louisiana history.

Upcoming....

I made it to the first click today. WOW. I know it is just a temp thing. But that is okay. Today was neat as my students began to work on their “Home Remedy” booklets. They have 12 remedies to create and collect from parents, grandparents, and great-grand-parents. Should be a cool next Wednesday.


Monday is our school wide Social Studies and Science fair. Means I won’t have students next Monday after church. They will be tired up all day. I will be finishing the day with an asmbly on Mardi Gras and how things came to be – 12^th night – Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday - Ash Wednesday – Lent – Easter etc.


 I am starting a movie next week. After they watch they will have a sequel to write about what happened next since there is “no next” after the movie. They will write plus draw a story that they make up covering all the main characters in the movie.

 
They have loved this each year and I am looking forward to seem the outcome again this year. They will also be doing my Cellphone from the Past activity from here on TpT. It worked great last year.

 
The week after we will be watching the second movie based on the time period. From there they will be creating their own Instagram photos from one of the lead characters. There is so much going on.


That will take us to the Civil War and the project (TpT) and their computer work for it. After that we move on to my student’s “Guess who is coming to dinner” computer project which is so cool. They have to invite six people, give me info on each, give topics to talk about that the dinner guests will take part in, create a meal to serve, look up and figure the cost of the meal, and so forth. That will take 5 -7 days. Then it is on to Huey P. Long and his story. And the quarter will be over.