Loving My Job

The perfect teaching job is where the students want to be in class, they pay attention and they do their work because they want to and they enjoy it.  I thought that job did not exist at the high school level.  Gifted came close on occasion, but for the most part, the kids didn't want to be there, didn't know why they had to take the class and so often it would drag the day down...

TLS is different.  My kids are excited to be here.  They check with each other about who has done their homework.  They encourage each other and they have lots to talk about.  Nothings perfect, but I gotta say, it's awesome to love my job this much.  :)

Another teacher in Ava, MO, told me,  

Our kids are LOVING it!  Seriously, they can’t wait to come in and find out what we’re doing.  It’s fantastic to see them so excited.  They even know they’re learning, and they still like it.  Weird.  They’re really “getting” the information, too.  [The other teacher] and I are thrilled!  We do a multiple choice assessment test every six weeks, and the last one was about two weeks ago.  Their scores were significantly better than they had been.  Yay!!!

She went on to say,

[The other teacher] made the comment yesterday (to another teacher) that she’s “actually excited to teach her English I classes.”  I had to laugh; it’s easy to get burned out when so many freshmen don’t seem to get what we need them to.

I found out this weekend that I have been invited/accepted to present at the Georgia Council of Teachers of English annual conference in February and I have decided to apply to present at PCA (Popular Culture Association) for their annual conference in April (in Boston!)  I will post about my adventures at NCTE tomorrow.  I am too busy enjoying my job to get to it today.

Tuesday Morning

My students are all coming into to class and are discussing at length with each other chapter 1 of Of Mice and Men.  They are very upset with how George talks to Lenny, but they can't decide how they feel about George....  Music to an English teacher's ears.  Class hasn't even started yet.  :)

Of Mice and Men (Beware the ramblings of ogres).

So we are nearing the end of the program.  Only three weeks left really.  It's both exciting and terrifying.  I've never been so exhausted as a teacher, and I imagine it's because I truly have everything riding on this.  These children successes or failures on this program are truly mine.  There is no excuse if they are not at least on the same level as the other 9th graders at the school.  It's funny, I used to take pride in my track record in standardized testing.  Even when I was teaching regular (rather than gifted/advanced) 9th grade I had a reputation when it came to my kids' tests scores.  While I have always felt that standardized and high stakes testing are not the best way and should never be the ONLY way a teacher is judged, I held those scores close to my heart as "proof" that I was a good teacher.  It is funny to me how much pride (and therefore bravado and even arrogance) is involved in teaching.  You really have to believe that you are truly the best and only person for the job, kind of like medicine (which I've had to do as a boy scout field medic at a summer camp) or law or even architecture.  All fields where you have to be confident in what you are doing to pull it off...  My dad used to tell me that military pilots (think Top Gun) were arrogant but that was a necessary thing as it takes down right arrogance to be able to "fly" through the upper atmosphere in a two ton (or more) metal tube (and be strapped in, no less).  The point is, teaching is like that too.  It's a huge put up job to stand in front of 30 (sometimes hostile) 9th graders and tell them you know enough to be the expert on a subject, an expert they must listen to in order to succeed in something.  Further, to write a program, to buck the system, takes it's own brand or arrogance.  In three weeks I put my money where my mouth is.  This "money" will be quite public, no less.  People are watching, not just the parents and administrators, but other teachers, school officials, and all the people who I've discussed this with, who wonder if I'm right or if I'm crazy....

The point of that ramble is Of Mice and Men.  The kids started reading it today.  First they watched the deeply dark and slightly unsettling episode, Born Under A Bad Sign.  We discussed and focused on the idea of good and bad (or evil) versus right and wrong.  Many people use these ideas interchangeably, but they are very different.  Sam feels he is bad and therefore may need to be "disposed" of.  Dean feels he may do wrong things, but he is not bad and is therefore redeemable (OK, it is both more simple and more complicated than that, but for the sake of this lesson, go with me.).  The parallel is George and Lenny and whether or not Lenny is bad or wrong or both or neither.  Also, the book is a great deal about hope (and what happens when it dies).  Dean is Sam's hope, or Dean is representative of the hope that the problems the Winchester's face can be solved.

As I taught today, and my students discussed I found myself overwhelmed with this thought.  Am I doing the wrong thing for the right reasons?  If I am wrong a whole group of students could possibly miss out on skills and lessons they need to get through high school.  There is hope, a whole lot of hope (and that is where the arrogance issue kicks in) and also practicality, I know how to teach, I know what needs to be taught and while some of the vehicles are different, driving is driving (metaphorically speaking) and I know how to drive and drive well, so....

Wow, I have really waxed philosophic at this point, haven't I? 

Like I said, this semester has been exciting and terrifying and most of all exhausting.  New things almost always are and there is a lot on the line here (and that not even including the most important part, the success of my students as learners of Language Arts).  I am very tired (the kind of good tired, you get from working out for a marathon, but before you know for sure that you will be able to do that final run) and that is probably why I saw all these parallels in Supernatural, Of Mice and Men and my professional aspirations as an educational innovator.  If my students can do that kind of critical thinking and connection making, then I've done my job.

I leave Wednesday night for Chicago and the NCTE annual conference. 

And the ogre wins!

Oh, yeah!

The ogre wins!  More specifically the kids won, they got the work done.  We aren't at 100% quite, but the ones who didn't turn it in are failing all classes and have issues beyond work ethic and a desire to be in school, so I while I won't give up on them, I have decided not to take their lack personally and am instead celebrating the vast majority who made the change and GOT THE WORK IN!!!! 

We are finishing up the Odyssey.  It is awesome to see them making the connections and comparisons between Sam and Dean and Odysseus.  They are really getting into this idea of "The Hero's Journey" and the process of Epics in general. 

While I am excited to go to Chicago for the NCTE (both to see it, as a presenter and cause I get to see my beautiful brand new nephew who won't be a month old...  SQUEEE!) it kills me to leave the kids.  It's funny, because this is a new thing.

As a teacher I hate missing school.  I mean emergency lesson plans, substitute teacher roulette (those of you that are teachers know what I mean) and the clean-up afterwards.  Not fun.  Last year I had the additional stress of just really difficult classes (behavior wise) and therefore also didn't like to leave them because of the professional clean-up.  This year, though, I don't want to miss....  my kids.  Watching them learn.  Talking to them about this and seeing them get excited.  Other teachers talk about mental health days and I understand (and even remember) but I can't imagine missing for anything short of death, a drama competition or the NCTE (and my nephew.)

Who knew Supernatural could tame an ogre?  (And when I said to my students, today, "sorry I was such and ogre about this..."  One of my most difficult piped up, "But you aren't an ogre, you're Miss Williams, and you just wanted what's best for us...")

Be still my heart.

Sometimes I am an Ogre... and I LIKE it!

The students are pretty ticked with me today.  It's kinda finny really, and I don't mind.  By hook or by crook I will get what I want, here, which is nothing but their best...

Yesterday we did Crossroad Blues.  It has a great segment on the end called, "Soon," that shows what is coming up for the next several episodes.  I pointed out that unless I get over 80% return on the poetry project, they wouldn't see a scene of it...  Then today I showed the Croatoan which ends before Dean reveals what his father told him before John died...  I repeated the threat.

They are really doing well on graphic organizers and quick assignments, but bigger projects (which they have lots of time and explanation for) not so much.  So that is my next big hurdle, getting them to do long term work. 

Anyway, all the booing was funny, because as I pointed out, they were my DVD's and I know what happens next...  No pay (work), No play (episodes.)

I'll let you know how it goes...   :)