Diversity in the Classroom

First off, I want to apologize to all my faithful readers for the long lapse between post. My only excuse is that my grad. school class is whipping my butt. Nevertheless, I offer you the following. Teachers are so often put in precarious positions on a daily basis. Most educators learn rather quickly that they will have to become masters at balancing the great diversity in each of our rooms with the demands of high stakes testing. It is often difficult to educate, truly educate, a minimum of 25 students in most cases that are all from varying races, socioeconomic backgrounds, religions, experiences, gender…etc, while at the same time making sure that the stars are properly aligned on that one day each year when the end of grade test day arrives. Teachers are no longer judged by how profoundly they impact a young person’s life or the life experiences the teacher exposed the students to, rather we are now seemingly judged as ‘quality’ educators based solely on the results of one test that each of our students take each year. It is demoralizing for both educators and students in my opinion.
In addition, the marginalized portions of our society are frequently left out, willingly or unwillingly, by our educational system as it currently stands in America. In my view teaching, good teaching, comes most often from educators that have lived through a multitude of experiences with those groups so frequently marginalized in our society. Not to toot my own horn, but I feel that by most accounts I provide my students from all backgrounds with the respect and education they need and deserve. My reasoning stems largely from my background, as I have certainly reaped the benefits of being one of the ‘privileged’ as I am a white male and it is easy for me to interact with that segment of society. However, when I came up through middle and high school my situation was not pleasant. My family, what there was of it, was extremely poor and I lived in what most would consider not nice places. I did not have nice clothes or nice things, but guess who readily accepted me despite that…those very same marginalized portions of society. As such, I feel like I am better able to reach the students that some my colleagues are either unwilling or unable to. There are certain behaviors that my poor African American students do that drive other teachers, mostly older white females, absolutely nuts. I tend to work with and around those behaviors, because I lived that lifestyle. In my humble opinion an educator can never teach a student whose life experiences they do not understand.

Two Broken Hands

My original intent for tonight's blog was going to be about the severe anxiety I've been wrecked with all day today thinking about how my student's are going to perform on the reading EOG tomorrow. I hope that I am wearing a thong all next week...over my pants of course! No one on planet earth wants to see what 1st crossed your minds when you read the last sentence. I promised all my students that if 90% of the class scored a 3 or 4 on their 1st attempt on the reading EOG that I would wear a pair of thongs all week. Anyway...I decided that instead of rambling about EOG's tonight I would try to lighten the mood for your sake and mine by sharing the story of grandpa's two broken hands.

Around the middle of last week in social studies class we were discussing how laws are more strictly enforced in other parts of the world like cutting off hands for stealing in parts of the Middle East, caning in Singapore...etc. Well, for whatever reason the discussion triggered a thought in one of my student's minds. He raised his hand and the following conversation transpired...

Me: Yes

Student: My grandpa broke both his hands last week.

Me: (after a 10 - 15 seconds of staring at him trying to figure out where this was going) That
sucks...how did he do that?

Student: He's a big guy, and he was falling so he put his hands out to protect himself and they
broke.

Me: Sorry to hear that.

At this point I returned my attention to the overhead and was a heartbeat from continuing with the class lecture when he blurts out the following.

Student: He can't wipe his butt Mr. Styron!

Of course the class broke into hysterics, and another student yelled out, "Well what does he do then?" With one of the saddest looks I've ever seen cross a student's face he replied...

My grandma has to do it.

To all my faithful followers here's hoping your days are better than that student's grandmother!

EOG = Confidence Breaker

If you're a regular reader of my blog you are certainly aware of my unbridled hatred for the EOG (end of grade) test mandated through the 'No Child Left Behind' law. If you're a new reader...please know that I HATE THE EOG'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Does the state of North Carolina have to have end of grade testing? The answer is no, but if the state were to not implement EOG testing then we would not get the much valued federal dollar.

For further evidence of the debilitating affects of EOG testing I present the following;

A mother of two of my students ( a brother and sister) came out this morning for a parent conference. The boy is in the correct grade, but the the sister should be in the 8th grade. (recall that I teach 7th grade) As we talked the mom explained to us that her daughter was the better student of the two, until the last time she took an EOG test. The mom stated that despite her daughter having been an A/B student her entire school career, she performed poorly on the EOG. As a result she was retained. It is very aggravating to me that despite the fact the student pulled down all A's and B's for the entire school year and has absolutely no discipline issues one test essentially threw out all the hard work she put in over the school year.

There has to be another way. What if... like many students she has terrible test anxiety, which is greater than normal for the EOG, because the students understand that it makes or breaks them for the school year? What if... like many of my students she has a horrible home life...lack of sleep, lack of food, lack of parental support...etc? The mom told us that ever since the last EOG disaster her daughter has completely given up on performing academically throughout the school year, because it was made painfully apparent to her that her hard work throughout the year is pointless.

It appears to me that the 'No Child Left Behind' law is having the opposite of it's intended effect, at least for this student, because she has certainly been put behind her classmates. Is there anything good about the EOG's? Not that I'm aware of, but I'd love to hear from my faithful followers if you know of anything.

Behaviors

Sorry for the long delay between posts...have been incredibly busy. The veteran teachers at my school have often told me that every year of teaching is different than the one before. Naturally, the students personalities, like and dislikes, and learning styles will vary year after year. In addition I have found that my teaching style changes each year as I constantly modify lesson plans to make them more effective.

The reason for bringing this up today is that by and far the biggest difference I've noticed between this year and last year is the way in which the students react to the consequences they are given for unwanted behaviors. For some reason it seems that no matter what is done to deter the unwanted behaviors the students do not seem to care. We can contact their parents, send them to ISS, refer them to administation, after school detention, lunch detention, silent lunch...etc. The problem is that despite all these measure the SAME students day after day and week after week are still doing the same exact things that got them in trouble in the first place. It is quite frustrating as a teacher to have to deal with the same discipline issues on a daily basis, but I suppose that is the nature of the beast.

The battle of wills between teacher and middle school student continues and I love it!