Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Talking to Seniors

[Note: I am going to start changing student names in my posts. I don’t want a Harriet the Spy incident where a student comes across my blog.]

On Wednesday after school, I crossed the courtyard to go see my fellow teacher, Ms. Jodry. On the way back across the courtyard, I noticed a bunch of my students working outside for the yearbook club. I looked around me. White flakes were falling from the sky; the smoke was thick. (Santa Ana winds had caused mass fires around Southern California). What are you doing outside – get in! And so I had five seniors follow me into my classroom. There went my afternoon planning.

My problem with my seniors is this – I want to be their friend. I really enjoy talking to them. Their lives become my life. Let’s admit, I don’t have that much drama as a teacher – I live vicariously through them. What do you mean Mary and Francisco are dating now! Okay, so Janice and Steve can’t be in a group together because of that epic fight last year. The problem with getting too involved in their lives is getting too involved in their drama.

Edmundo stayed in my classroom for two hours that day. We talked a lot about college and how does not want to go. He’s going to paint with this father, and then he will start his own business. School isn’t meant for people like him he said. School isn’t going to help him he said. As a stubborn twelfth grader, they seem so naïve. But it’s not easy to convince them. Even if I knew the rhetoric to convince him that school is worth the effort, I have to battle the damning. He has Ds on his transcript. How many classes would he have to retake for colleges to accept him? How many adult school classes? How long will it take? Is senior year already too late to start thinking seriously about college when you’ve spent too many years goofing off?

Edmundo is very bright. I know he will succeed in life, even without college. He’s tricky though. Sometimes I fear that his behavior problems in school will translate into problems in a job. Armed with the infinite patience of a teacher, I ignore his name calling and cussing. His inability to stay seated in his chair for a whole period is MY problem. His inability to sit in a chair in ten months will be HIS problem. What boss is as nice as Ms. Goswamy?

Monday, November 26, 2007

The Field Trip

November 17

In the beginning, I was super excited about my school's after-school activities. Chaperone the Homecoming Dance? Sure! Sign me up! Come to the ALC fundraising dinner at Shakey's tonight? Sure sign me up! Chaperone the AVID trip to Knott's Berry Farm? Of course! Sign me up!

Never. Ever. Will I chaperone an after-school field trip again. I enjoyed the dance and the pizza. It's the theme park that was one (two… nine) hours too long. Friday at 5:30 PM (after a full day of teaching, which in itself should be remarkable and happy hour worthy) I queued up outside the school to chaperone the 9th and 10th grade bus to Knott's Berry Farm. Wait back up. Let's start at 4:30 PM when I decide to leave my bat cave (er, classroom) and venture out on 3rd St. to find some dinner before my exciting night. I was still enthusiastic at this point. I'm walking by myself down the street trying to make my way to Lolita's Burritos, when four ALC students hailed me down to eat pupusas with them at the corner taco shop. I felt popular. I ate with them. Half way through my really cheesy quesadilla, I realized that roller coasters were to follow.

During dinner, I chatted with the four students are in my small learning community but in grades that I don't teach. Therefore, they were open with their profanity and immaturity. I was amused throughout. Then, one of my 9th grade students appeared. She's a really brilliant student but has a huge chip on her shoulder. We don't get along too well in the classroom. She was shocked (and appalled) that her friends were having dinner with Ms. Goswamy. “You, Miss?! what the hell are you doing here? Oh... haha, we're not at school, you can't yell at me for cussing. Ha ha!”

I was suddenly aware that I was going to spend two hours on a school bus in Friday rush-hour traffic with 50 9th graders. What the hell was I doing there?

I fell asleep on the bus ride so I only gritted my teeth through 35 conscious minutes of "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" and "This is the song that never ends…". Once at the park, I had a solidly good time. I hung out with three fellow teachers. I chatted with students and
laughed at their animated expressions on the rides. Two of my 12th grade students along with my lead teacher physically dragged me onto a ride. I went kicking and screaming. I threatened them with fails. Somehow, they overpowered me and I ended up on the Rip Tide – one of those small rides that twirl too many times. Remember cheesy quesadilla? Luckily it stayed with me. My sanity, though, left.

We left the park at 1:00 AM. I, along with most others, fell asleep on the ride home from pure exhaustion. When we arrived back at the school at 1:45 AM, the weather was noticeably chillier. We waited almost an hour outside the school to make sure everyone got picked up by a family member. Walking home at 2 AM is not an option even when they live only a few blocks away. A couple of Escalades sped by with the windows rolled down as gang members made ugly faces at us. “Kids, stay together, don’t wander off!” In the end, we ended up driving some students home.

I arrived home at 3 AM with “never, ever” sentiments. On December 7th, I am chaperoning the Winter Dance. I signed up for the manageable (and early!) 6-9 PM time slot.

Scripted Curriculum Is Evil

October 13

At one point, I could not think past classroom management problems and learning student names. As I reflect now, I can appreciate how, early in my teaching career, I was reminded that I am at the bottom of a very extensive hierarchy. In Education class, the readings and discussions illuminate just how entrenched school policy-making is, starting from the state government and filtering down to school boards and superintendents, finally, to me. In my case, I am expected to teach a curriculum that someone above me in the hierarchy decided was best for high school English students.

I know very little about the school board that affects my district. I do not know who wrote the scripted curriculum for my 9th and 12th graders. But according to one of my readings
(Provenzo 2002), school boards tend to be relatively conservative, “reflecting the status quo and the power blocks in their communities.” Then I am inherently skeptical about the curriculum I received. The 9th grade expository unit is based on the book A Night To Remember – a non-fiction account of the final hours before the Titanic sank. The author Walter Lord interviewed hundreds of people to get multiple perspectives. Of the over two hundred people that Lord names in excruciating detail, not one character is a minority. Not one character is someone my students can remotely relate to. My students do not reflect the “status quo.”

I agree that the fast pace of technology growth and the racial diversity of our students make dealing with difference and change imperative for teachers. Nevertheless, scripted curriculum seems to say that teachers need not worry about difference or change. Here, marginalized to a 2-inch binder with unit tabs, is a curriculum that will satisfy all the needs of every student. Teach this exactly and watch their scores rise, they seem to say.

A month into teaching I went back to Beaudry St. to update my university intern credential. I was waiting in a conference room on the 15th floor, looking out over downtown Los Angeles. I can see my high school two blocks away. It was built two years ago to relieve Belmont High, what used to be the biggest high school in the nation in student population. I am again reminded of all the people who welcomed me to the big bureaucracy – the red tape and inefficiency. The view from the 15th floor confirms this negative connotation. Scanning a few blocks south from my high school, I see the “new” Belmont High School. This building was supposed to open in 1999 – the first wave of new schools to relieve the overcrowding “old” Belmont High. The building is still not done. A few blocks west, Belmont High still suffers from a lack of teachers, facilities, and resources. Rumors say that the “new” Belmont will open in 2008, almost ten years after is should have been finished. I only hope that the construction fences soon disappear along with the red tape that surrounds the school.

Monday, November 12, 2007

The Beauty of Bureaucracy

October 6, 2007

I remember accepting my job at the LAUSD headquarters on Beaudry St. in downtown Los Angeles. Every one had an opinion. Welcome to biggest bureaucracy, they said. You’ll be hearing from them . . . often, they warned. I laughed, shrugged my shoulders, and signed the dotted line. I then had an unpleasant reminder of what it meant to work for LAUSD: I missed the entire second week of school for scripted curriculum training. I am reminded of that week now as I go back for another day of training.

Despite being repetitious and lacking in imagination, the scripted curriculum for 12th grade English has a few bright spots – bright enough to employ in the classroom. Initially, I was afraid to criticize LAUSD curriculum. After all, I am a first year teacher without years of experience to guide my opinions as to what works and what fails in a classroom. Nevertheless, it’s remarkable how quickly a first year teacher develops opinions.

The 12th grade curriculum is entirely expository. This trend by the district to go more expo and less literary is evident in the readings and writings. Divided into twelve modules, the curriculum covers engaging topics (from the fast food epidemic and hiring practices based on beauty to juvenile justice) that are relevant to the students. While I support the idea that 12th graders need to learn how to critically analyze non-fiction texts, the readings do not require the students to become invested in the process of reading. The articles are informative but not complex. They can read an article in twenty minutes (rereading is, of course, encouraged) while a novel requires persistence and buy-in.

I taught the first module about fast food to my classes. They found the topic interesting, but I couldn’t stay on the module for longer than three days. My students were becoming impatient with a two-page article that did not require much in-depth analysis. It is not the length that matters – imagine the weeks you can spend on one Shakespeare monologue – but the content. I can’t imagine my students being interested when the LAUSD representatives couldn’t get us high school teachers interested during the training conference. If dozens of high school English teachers can’t get excited about reading and writing, there must be something wrong. Moreover, the curriculum does not provide any help for how to adapt the assignments and activities for EL (English Language) students or SpEd students. I feel like I could have received the reading materials in the mail and still been as prepared to teach it as I am after having missed the second week of school. I can complain now because I know that come second semester, when I’ve exhausted my luck with teaching novels, I’m going to turn towards the 12th grade expo modules and suddenly appreciate the brevity and relevance of a two page newspaper article.