The first day of school, I sent home a parent letter with my email address and phone number in it, plus a memo about joining our Facebook group for the class. Clearly my students didn’t read the letter, because when I used my phone number as an example for a math problem, they could not believe that I would actually give out my number. Everyday a new student says, “Ima call you, Miss H…”, and they always do. I’m up to 4 different students calling our home phone now. The following is my most recent conversation with a student:
Akila: “Hey Miss H.”
Miss H: “Hello, who is this?”
A: “Akila.”
MH: “Hi Akila….what can I do for you?”
A: “What are you doing?”
MH: “I’m lesson planning, Akila.”
A: “Oh, I’ll call back later.”
MH: “I can help you now. What’s up?”
A: “I was just calling to see what you was doing.”
MH: “Oh. Well what are you doing?”
A: “Eating popcorn.”
MH: “Oh. Have you done your homework yet?”
A: “Homework?”
MH: “Giiiirrrlll….you know we had homework. Those 8 problems on the board.”
A: “Oh Miss H, you late.”
MH: “You’ve done them already?”
A: “Yeah.”
MH: “That’s what I like to hear.”
A: “Alright. Well I’ll call you later. Or see you in school tomorrow.”
MH: “Ok, Akila. See you tomorrow.”
Based on the tone of our conversation, Akila thinks we’re best friends. She was just calling to chat, to see what I’m doing. It’s entertaining and cute and oh-so-middle school. And that’s just a little flavor of what my kids are like. I couldn’t even begin to do them justice. Rahjanique comes to my room between all of her classes and after school to hug me. Yesterday she brought me a picture she drew me in one of her other classes. Naquien wrote, “Miss H is best teacher in the world” on his whiteboard when we were working multiplication problems with decimals (even though doodling is strictly against the rules, my heart melted and I couldn’t take the board away). I pick Makala and Amber up in the morning from the gym to come to my room for “extra help”, although I expect it’s more to write on my white board than to practice. So I’ve won over a few students, but tomorrow is the moment of truth: our first quiz, when I’ll really see if I’ve gotten these kids invested in me or invested in learning. I’m afraid of the results, because for every student that likes me, there are 8 more that don’t.
I’m mean. I’m strict. I’m not fun. I’m not fair. The students have said many things about me, whether under their breath or to my face, in the past few days. And most of them are true. I have been mean. My 8th period is a disaster, and I’ve had to be ridiculously hard on them to get even five minutes of quiet. I’ve resorted to bribing them with class points for every little task they complete, and that still doesn’t work all the time. I am strict. I’ve made them work quietly and move if they are being disruptive. I gave my first silent lunch today. But none of that bothers me. I’ve told them over and over again I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure these kids work hard, even if it means being mean.
What I hate is that I have been unfair. But not the way the kids imagine. I haven’t been giving out consequences as consistently as I should, and I let the troublemakers get away with too much. In my 8th period, the kids who do want to learn are suffering at the expense of their not-so-productive classmates. And I’m terrified to see the results of the first quiz tomorrow, especially in that class period. I think it’ll be a wake up call for both the kids and me: it’s time to get serious.
You know you’re a teacher when you blow out the candles on your birthday cake and you wish for a well-behaved 8th period class. My roommates made me my favorite strawberry cake to celebrate yesterday, and sad to say I had to waste my magical wish on behavior management. But regardless it was nice to take some time away from school work and relax around a meal together, even though all we talked about was school and our kids (what can I say, they provide an endless source of entertainment).
Thank you so much for sharing your conversation with Akila! That is absolutely precious!
ReplyDeleteStay strong. I hope your quizzes went well, and I really hope that your time in VA this weekend was relaxing, fun, and rejuvinating!