Sorry that I've been so sporadic with my posts. Life at school has been very busy and overwhelming to the point that when I come home I don't want to even look at a computer.
Just a few updates:
*April break officially started on Friday. I don't have to go back to school until April 27th. This break couldn't have come at a better time.
*Finished the French Revolution unit with all my classes except the co-taught class. They are always behind due to the learning issues. Spent one day on Industrial Revolution. The plan is when I get back to complete imperialism, communism, nationalism, socialism, and capitalism in a few days. And, then on to World War I. I hate that we have no time to teach everything that needs to get taught in a proper way. I'm being told I need to get through World War II by the end of the school year (the end of June).
*Got invited to see a special viewing just for teachers at the New England Aquarium IMAX. Saw this. Amazing! If the film comes to your local IMAX, check it out.
*From now until the end of the school year, I won't be blogging as much. Once I'm out of school for the summer break, I will start writing more often with teaching ideas.
*I leave on Monday for North Carolina until Friday for a much needed vacation.
*On the 28th, I will be attending a workshop on the Conservative Right. Should be interesting. This workshop is a local history grant so they pay me $125 to attend the workshop. I've attended at least four of them this school year. The grant also pays for the substitute which is a nice feature. Plus, we are giving a ton of resources for our classroom - mostly primary documents that I can use in my local history course that I teach.
Hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing April break. :=)
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
The Life of a High School Teacher in an Urban School . . . . . .
It seems that the drama never ends at my school.
We've been dealing with all sorts of problems the last few weeks. I think partly because the bad economy impacts our kids (we have a high percentage of students that come from low socio-economic backgrounds) and partly because the few weeks before any school vacation our kids go into "crazy mode" - you see, we provide stability and safety for a lot of our students. When their usual schedule is disrupted in any way, they react to it by getting into a lot of fights or causing serious problems within the school community.
Example 1: Last week, there were three REALLY bad fights in the cafeteria. One of the fights involved one student using his keys to stab another student in the kidney (yes, the keys punctured the kidney). There was blood everywhere. :-(
Example 2: A freshman boy (one of my kids) is being accused of forcing a girl to perform oral sex on him by knife point (the incident didn't happen on school grounds but the school is involved). The boy is out of school for the rest of the school year pending the investigation.
Example 3: One of our students was beaten up by her 21 year old boyfriend in front of our school while holding their 1 year child while a lot of our students (and teachers) watched it (this happened in the morning while students were being dropped off at school so teachers and students were walking into the building and witnessed everything). The police were immediately called. The police were in the building on Thursday questioning everyone on what they saw.
Example 4: One of my freshman gals had a baby back in November (yes, if you do the math, she got pregnant in middle school). The father of the baby (17 years old) was just arrested for robbery (he tried to steal a safe from the local movie theatre and got caught).
Example 5: In one of my classes, at least half of the parents in that class are laid off from their jobs. I've noticed a significant difference in behavior like acting out, being disrespectful to me or other kids in the class, etc.
It's been a very tough few weeks having to deal with all of this AND try and teach these kids World History. All of these events are impacting the kids in some way. They bring it into the classroom every single day. And, as the adult, I try and provide a fun learning environment for the kids since they are dealing with all of this drama around them. I will admit that I do take a lot of this emotional stuff home with me since it is impacting me too. I worry about my students.
I am VERY grateful for the long weekend (we get Good Friday off from school). I will admit the past few weeks have been double stressful since 3rd quarter ended and I had to do grades. We have next week in school and then we get the following week off for April break. I have never been so excited to have a break in my life. I just hope that I (and the kids) can make it through the end of next week.
To end on a positive note: A colleague of mine asked me if I would go with her to North Carolina for April break (her daughter is looking at colleges down there and she wanted the adult company). I said yes! So, I think this will be a good break for me.
Happy Easter! Happy Passover! :=)
We've been dealing with all sorts of problems the last few weeks. I think partly because the bad economy impacts our kids (we have a high percentage of students that come from low socio-economic backgrounds) and partly because the few weeks before any school vacation our kids go into "crazy mode" - you see, we provide stability and safety for a lot of our students. When their usual schedule is disrupted in any way, they react to it by getting into a lot of fights or causing serious problems within the school community.
Example 1: Last week, there were three REALLY bad fights in the cafeteria. One of the fights involved one student using his keys to stab another student in the kidney (yes, the keys punctured the kidney). There was blood everywhere. :-(
Example 2: A freshman boy (one of my kids) is being accused of forcing a girl to perform oral sex on him by knife point (the incident didn't happen on school grounds but the school is involved). The boy is out of school for the rest of the school year pending the investigation.
Example 3: One of our students was beaten up by her 21 year old boyfriend in front of our school while holding their 1 year child while a lot of our students (and teachers) watched it (this happened in the morning while students were being dropped off at school so teachers and students were walking into the building and witnessed everything). The police were immediately called. The police were in the building on Thursday questioning everyone on what they saw.
Example 4: One of my freshman gals had a baby back in November (yes, if you do the math, she got pregnant in middle school). The father of the baby (17 years old) was just arrested for robbery (he tried to steal a safe from the local movie theatre and got caught).
Example 5: In one of my classes, at least half of the parents in that class are laid off from their jobs. I've noticed a significant difference in behavior like acting out, being disrespectful to me or other kids in the class, etc.
It's been a very tough few weeks having to deal with all of this AND try and teach these kids World History. All of these events are impacting the kids in some way. They bring it into the classroom every single day. And, as the adult, I try and provide a fun learning environment for the kids since they are dealing with all of this drama around them. I will admit that I do take a lot of this emotional stuff home with me since it is impacting me too. I worry about my students.
I am VERY grateful for the long weekend (we get Good Friday off from school). I will admit the past few weeks have been double stressful since 3rd quarter ended and I had to do grades. We have next week in school and then we get the following week off for April break. I have never been so excited to have a break in my life. I just hope that I (and the kids) can make it through the end of next week.
To end on a positive note: A colleague of mine asked me if I would go with her to North Carolina for April break (her daughter is looking at colleges down there and she wanted the adult company). I said yes! So, I think this will be a good break for me.
Happy Easter! Happy Passover! :=)
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