Overheard!

I guess I am officially published. When I was in New York over Spring Break, I submitted some (ok, like 5 or 6) of the funny comments that I heard on the streets of NYC. In any case, here's the link.

Spring Craziness

I'm pretty sure that people are familiar with the term "Senioritis". It's that time of year that seniors severely retard, or even flat-out quit their studies, because they are pretty much done with high school. Contrary to popular belief, this same malady afflicts students of all ages. They are very much aware that there are only 7 weeks of school left, and they are starting to shut down. Today, in my French I class, I had to do a little bit of "yelling" and use a little of my "feel-a-little-bad-about-yourself-because-you've-made-Mr. French-mad language". Freshman are really a strange breed. I have decided that I cannot take them talking--having CONVERSATIONS--while I am at the board teaching or talking to them. We have 7 weeks left, and tomorrow will bring stiffer penalties, plus a new seating chart. I don't have time to be stressed out over some 14-year olds

Etc...

First of all, I know you are wondering what this picture has to do with anything. My friend Vic took this while we were on the subway in NYC last week. This was part of a series of ads by a NYC legal firm. To go along with their 212-DIVORCE & 212-BAIL-OUT, they felt as if they needed to help our Hispanic brethren. I know they wanted something easy to remember, but seriously!? News front: If you read my post below, I seem a bit dispondent and worried. I was afraid that I wasn't going to get the numbers needed to teach French III next year. Well, that section increased three-fold in 2 days , so it looks like I will get to finally have a full schedule next year! If you know me, you know that Overheard in New York is one of my favorite websites. In honor of that, I have collected some choice quotes today that I will call: "Overheard in North Dallas Suburban High". Let's see how that will fit on the uniforms...here we go: A student throws up in the in-school suspension room, and runs to the bathroom. Observing Student: I wonder how many times he stuck his finger down his throat so that he didn't have to stay here. I should do that. A few students are having a conversation while waiting for class to begin. J: Mr., why do we have to learn French? If I go somewhere in Europe, it'd be ItaliaSpain. S: Where's ItaliaSpain? G: Dummy, it's Italy and Spain. S: Oh, are those countries? G: Yes! S: Oh...what continent is that? Girl drops pen, crouches down to get it, and some paper, as well. B: Hey! What's she doing? R (the whitest white guy): She's gettin' low!

Proactive

My first year teaching, I taught French I, and I had one of the best groups of students a teacher could ask for. I could literally leave my students alone, and be assured that they would be working on the assignment that I gave them with minimal supervision. Towards the end of last year, I had to decide which courses I wanted to teach this year. I didn't want to leave that class of kids, because they were so smart, and so willing to learn, so I requested to teach French II. Not much has changed with these kids. They are very mature, and are able to learn a lot of material well. We have done some pretty tough grammar concepts, as well (indirect/direct object pronouns, stress pronouns, the 2 types of past tense). It is looking more and more like I want to teach French III next year. I needed to recruit as many students as possible, so I sent letters home, extolling the virtues of taking 3rd year of a language. I didn't send it to everyone, just those that I though would succeed based upon past performance. Now I have students coming up saying, "Hey, I didn't get one of those letter things". My response is: Well, you aren't passing French II, and you want to take 3? At that point I ignore that the conversation ever took place.

Black. White.

Did anyone catch this on FX last night?

Now Who's Watching the Clock

This is a picture of Heaven. It's otherwise known in Layman's terms as an empty classroom. Tomorrow at 2:30pm my week of annual debauchery Spring Break officially begins. It's usually on days like this that my principal tells us that he doesn't care what time we leave, but his only request is that we try not to run over any kids on our way out.

You Get a C+ For Effort

It seems as though my concept of success has changed since I first started teaching last year. I remember one time last year when my French I classes averaged abot 72 or 73 on a test. I was really hurt. I felt that it was something that I was doing wrong to cause these low scores. I had them write anonymous notes to me, telling me what I or we as a class could do better to ensure our success. To elicit true responses, I told them that no one would see them, and that they were not to write their name (I know their handwriting). One girl said that she wasn't passing because I moved her away from her friend, so now she is unmotivated. There were some good suggestions about playing review games, or going a little bit slower, so I used them in the future. Most confessed that it was their fault because they don't study. Flash forward to this school year. I find nothing wrong with scores in the 70's...I now realize that it's a good average (not great however). So I smiled a little as I put their most recent tests in the gradebook. It's so wrong, but I love hearing: "Hey, at least I passed!".

Geography 102

I finally finished everything this weekend. I feel like a huge load has been taken of of my shoulders. I can now tell my students who's missing what. If you read my blog (not sure if people really do, or if I'm just talking to myself), you may have noticed that I changed a book under my "reading" section. I inadvertantly finished a 579-page book, Angels & Demons. I must say that the story was much better than The Da Vinci Code, although I loved both! Today, the kids were looking over the world map that I made them label a week or so ago. They have a test tomorrow, and I have a student "N", who was talking to her friends. They were discussing how to say North America in French. "N" could not figure out why Canada was considered part of North America. "It's not America!", she proclaimed. I really didn't even want to help her figure that one out. I let her friends laugh at her. She was the same student last year that told me (in front of class) that she didn't realize there were really kings and queens in the world. She assumed they were only in fairy tales. She also asked how long the train trip from Texas to France lasted...

Swamped...

I have a lot of work to do. Plain and simple. A lot of work. This is the 2nd full week of our 3rd trimester. I have been taking up work since last week. I've collected quizzes, homework, daily work, and all of my classes have presentations either today or tomorrow. I have just started grading the hundreds of papers. I now have to enter them into the gradebook so that my students can stop bugging me about their grades. :::sigh::: I have 1 class completely done (not yet entered), so I guess I am making a little progress.

Is It Too Late?

So today during 1st period, "T" told me that he didn't really want to work with the rest of his group on their powerpoint presentations that they are giving tomorrow. His reasoning was simple. He doesn't like his group members, and would rather get a zero. I didn't want to oblige and let him work with whom he wanted, because for one, I think that it would set a bad precedent. I also thing that it is important for "T" to learn to work with people that he doesn't like. His response was that he didn't care, and that he would not care if I gave him a zero. My building principal is very big on "teaching moments", so I decided to take "T" to the side for a bit to talk to him, and see what the deal was. He is in his second year of French, so I had him last year as well. He ended up teling me that he has other things going on that are more important than school, and it is not a priority for him (we had discussed this previously, so this line of argument wasn't new to me). He doesn't care if he passes, since he says will just take Spanish (he knows how to read, write, and speak it) next year to fulfill his graduation requrements. A lot of the times my kids are ambivalent about failing. I always try to spin by saying : if you don't like it the first time, then why would you put yourself through the hell of having to go through it again? "T" told me that he works 25 hours a week, so he doesn't have time to do really anything that involved out of school work. His parents have kicked him out of the house, and he is living with a friend in an apartment that is 30 minutes away from school. I told him that I know he is smart, and that I want to see him succeed. His plan is to get his diploma if it works out, and if not, he will just go and get his GED, eventually attending community college. He had previously stated that he didn't have any plans, so I told him that that was a good start. I just wanted him to know that I really do believe in him, and want him to do things in his life. I think that I was overly-sensitive to his situation, because I had just read in the January 30th edition of Newsweek that America's boys are falling behind at every level of education, and there doesn't seems to be an end in sight. After our 10 minute conversation, I am not really sure that much was accomplished, but I will be looking out for this kid for the rest of the year to make sure that he makes it through. In other news: tomorrow is the 2nd day of our "dog and pony show". Our school has being sprucing itself up to look good for the accrediation agency that is inspecting the building, staff, faculty, students, and classrooms. I'll be glad when it's all over. We have been forced to sit through 2 presentations about how we are to behave so that we can receive the highest possible rating. Funny how the administration always says they hate dog and pony shows, since people can see right through them...