"Getting through" the play

My teaching of Richard III didn't feel as good as it did last year. I'm still trying to figure out why, but, for some reason, it just didn't feel like the kids "got it" like they did last year. I did the same kind of cool Folger activities -- film comparisons, performance, etc. -- that I did last year, but something was missing.

One issue that I have, and have had for a while, is figuring out the best way to "get through" the play, or, really, any work of literature. This is a pretty basic need to figure out in an English classroom, but I still play around with it. One option is to assign a text, provide some pre-reading activities to open up understanding, and then come back together at the end for activities that will deepen understanding. That's pretty much how you do it in college classes. The polar opposite is how I do the literature with the 9th graders - a lot of hand-holding as we go, and we go through the literature very slowly (sometimes too slowly) to make sure they "get it".

I feel like I went too slowly through Richard III, stopping every day for a cool activity, and then assigning some more, and then stopping again for an activity. I don't know why it felt so slow this time, but I'm taking the opposite approach with Much Ado About Nothing -- a break-neck pace, reading through an act a day in class until Thanksgiving. It's worked so far; we discuss it a little bit as we go, but mostly we're just up and acting it out. Literally, we finished Act I on Thursday and Act II on Friday. We'll be done by Thanksgiving, and then return to do some real work with the plot.

I'm loving it, and the "getting through" the book seems to be working. One kid told me yesterday that my class was the only reason he came to school, because he wanted to act so bad. And he's playing hapless Claudio, too. Another girl has taken to calling herself "Don Pedro" all day in all of her classes, since that's her role. I'm loving it.

"Gifts" by Peter Davison

When I was a child, a heartstruck neighbor died

On her birthday. Dying was strange enough,

But what a way to choose to spend your birthday,

I thought, and what sort of a gift was this?

From time to time, people have done it since--

Dying in the environs of a celebration

As though they had picked out the day themselves.

Perhaps they had, one way or another,

Prayed for something to happen, and prayed wrong.

Sophocles, when old enough to die,

Suspected prayer and entered a caveat:

'Zeus, act kindly whether or not I pray;

And, though I plead for it, turn harm away.'

I keep a wary silence on my birthdays,

Make up no lists at Christmas, lie low

When asked what I really want. How should I know?

Best ask for gifts as though I had none coming.

Now it's National Board-certified Epiphanyin Baltimore

I am now a Nationally Board certified teacher.

Scores came out today and I made it.

I definitely recommend it for anyone looking at some hard reflection at their teaching.

Reason to like new contract?

One reason why I like the new contract. This year, unlike last year, I'm not at the NCTE, something I kind of would like to go to every year if I could, to better my teaching practices and all that. However, I just couldn't justifying spending the thousand bucks out of pocket every year to attend. Next year, though, if I get AU credit, it might make financial sense to attend and I could probably afford to go then.

Contract, NBPTS, etc.

1. I'm glad the contract passed. I've written about it enough so you can track all of my feelings about it over the last two months, so I don't think there's more to say. I hopeful that it won't be abused more than the current contract is abused, and I'm hopeful these offices that are put in to track AUs and approve model teachers will be much more efficient than anything else that has come out of North Avenue.

2. Tomorrow, National Board scores will be reased. It's the only thing on my mind right now. I've been starting with mentoring of candidates for the upcoming year, but its all been kind of silly because I don't know if I have it yet. In fact, I'm not feeling very good about it. Scores will be released mid-morning and I don't remember ever being so nervous about something like this. Okay, okay, I was definitely more nervous about my students' IB scores this summer. But this is comparable.

3. Open House tonight. Busy, but I sure love my students.

Voting day tomorrow

I've been teaching the hell out of Richard III and Fences lately. Sorry I haven't been writing. I have some posts forming in my mind about teaching Shakespeare, about vocabulary, and about teaching the first essay for 9th graders.

Right now, though, I just to get through this week. Tomorrow is Take-your-parent-to-school day, plus PTA meeting, plus Coach Class, plus the superintendent in our building (!!) plus... it's VOTING DAY!

We have a 10-minute drive or so to the voting site, plus finding parking and voting (will there be a line?), so a 50-minute class planning period will make it difficult. I'm at school until really late tomorrow, but I'm going to vote. I'm even organizing carpooling for my school.

I'm hopeful, but not optimistic, that it will pass.

Irked by vote

The fact that Voting for the New Contract runs only from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 17 -- without early release or any sort of time consideration -- is a complete disregard for the actual schedule that (good) teachers keep.

Seriously.

I will do my best to re-arrange my schedule and vote, but it will be difficult. My school is holding Take-Your-Parent-to-School Day, plus a PTSA meeting. That's been long scheduled. I'm sure parents will understand if we have to go vote, but still... it shouldn't be a choice.

If my planning period was longer than 50 minutes, I would chance leaving the building to wait in line to vote. But the voting site is a 10-minute drive away, and finding parking (it will be busy) and getting in line to vote within 25 minutes or so is too risky.

I hope I'm wrong. But this has made me and a lot of teachers at my school pretty annoyed (I heard, with my own ears, that Alonso said he would support an early-release date, so I'm blaming the BTU for this one), If the contract doesn't pass this time (I'm voting for it), we have a reason -- I really doubt there will close to the turnout as there was at the first vote, and only the people who hate the contract (they are vocal and their word is spreading) will be turning out in droves, not the ones who sorta like it like me. And I don't know any teachers jumping up and down about it, just ateachers (like me) who see a lot of good in it but have our reservations still.

Oh, 9th graders

Me: "So, what character traits does Troy exhibit on the first two pages of the play?"

Girl: "He is outspoken, because he goes to the boss about all the black men lifting the trash and all the white guys driving."

Boy: "Wait, wait, real talk, though: Black people are stronger than white men."

Me: "Uhhhh. Aren't you stereotyping?"

Boy: "No. Real talk."

Me: "Really? I can bench press 225 pounds. How about you?"

Boy: "..."

This is the same kid who answered "white people" during a pre-reading questions for this poem about what kind of people would expect a beach to be combed free of footprints every morning.

He's actually one of my new favorites -- he's totally engaged for each of the fifty minutes of class periods, paying me the ultimate compliment of 100% attention -- but he sure says some goofy things.

Kate Hooks benefit a success

On Friday night, the Kate Hooks Benefit at Ze Mean Bean Cafe was a huge success. Kate, a teacher at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, is an 11-year veteran of Baltimore City Schools. Her progressive form of multiple sclerosis has confined her to a wheelchair and forced her to hire a caretaker to help her get ready for work in the morning. Insurance doesn't cover the cost of this, which is upwards of $20,000 a year.

Through the event, we were able to raise $2100 for Kate's care. If you would like to donate yourself, please visit Katehooks.Blogspot.com.

Special thanks to Ze Mean Bean Cafe (a great little restaurant and wine bar in Fells Point) for donating its space and selling food at cost. And a big thanks to Caleb Stine for donating his performance and donating all CD sales to the cause.

Below are photographs of the event, which was a lot of fun and an amazing moment of the community coming together for a good cause!

Welcome to Baltimore

He called me name as we passed each other at the football game, and then the tall, goateed, brown-skinned young man grabbed me and gave me a big bear hug, eschewing my outstretched handshake. I only recognized him a little and he must have noticed my confusion, because he asked if I remembered him. I could hear disappointment.

This kind of experience is both the best and the worst for teachers. I love to see my old students, but I've now taught or coached nearly 2000 kids -- give or take -- and my mind can barely remember where my keys are. I recognize their faces, but the names don't always come.

And then he grinned. I asked him what year he graduated, and he told me '04, and then it became clear - "First base. Taylor _____" and I had it! Take away the goatee and add some braids to his hair and this was my first baseman the first and second years I was the Assistant Coach of the baseball team. When I became head coach, his senior year, he was injured, so he never officially played for me as head coach. But I remembered him well -- his tall and lanky frame, his quick left-handed bat, his excitement over my opening speech as head coach, when I asserted that we would beat our big rival school (I was right, although it took us six years from that point to do it).

So he's doing great, with a degree in Civil Engineering from Morgan State and a good job in DC, plus some real estate development in Baltimore. A success story. After hearing about him, I told him about the story I remember most about him. I think about this almost almost every time I'm at this intersection of Cold Spring and Falls Rd:

His Junior year, when I was still Assistant Coach, he had a test last period and couldn't make the team bus. I volunteered to drive him over to the game after his test; he would still be able to make it by around 3:30 (game time is at 3:45) if we did it this way. On the way, stopped at a stoplight, someone approached his side of the car. Neither of us were suited up in our uniforms yet. He asked him a couple of questions and I didn't really understand what was happening (I would know now, after close watching of The Wire, what it was). As we drove up, he broke out laughing, then got a little annoyed. "That man was trying to buy weed from us!" He added, "Yo, just because a kid got braids and is with a white man doesn't mean he's a drug dealer!"

And that was one of my "Welcome to Baltimore" moments.

He didn't remember the story at all. LOL.

All in all, it was a great day -- saw lots of former students, all of whom seem to be doing well. I guess this is why I do what I do, to see what they all end up becoming.

Fences and the Rolly chair

I love teaching August Wilson's Fences. The Persepolis unit is over, and it was largely successful; however, our school's lack of technology really made the last project I attempted pretty difficult to make go well. Now onto Fences, though, and, hopefully, no attempts at technology other than YouTube videos in my classroom. Taking the students down to an antiquated computer lab just makes my life too stressful and I don't believe has the rewards for the students.

Anyhow, I've been having a tougher time than normal with my 9th graders this year, it seems. I have kids who are really reluctant readers (about three-quarters are not reading at grade level, and many are down in the 5th or so grade reading level or even lower) and that reluctance manifests itself into disruptive behavior.

Plus, even though I've now been teaching for a decade, I still feel like I forget things about classroom management.

I'll give you an example. I have two rolling chairs in my room -- a chair at my desk, and a chair I put off to the side and use when I'm at my laptop presenting something on the LCD projector to class. I rarely do the latter, but like to have the chair there for when I do.

One day, about a month into the school year, a 6'3" 9th grader that I have sat in the chair. He didn't ask, but when I looked at him funny, he did, and told me how uncomfortable the regular chairs were for his long limbs. "Do you mind if I sit here when you're not using it?", and I didn't.

Then, about a week later, kid #2 took it, claiming he had terrible back pain from football practice. Kid #1 and Kid #2 are friends, and they worked out an arrangement to take turns with the chair every other day. It was fine.

A couple of weeks later, Kid #3 wanted in on it. The three of them worked out a rotation. I don't really care. I'm fine with this sort of thing. I got it when I needed it.

Then, kid #4 asked about it. And he got into the rotation. And, at that point, it was utterly ridiculous. I realized I was giving up small amounts of class time and copious amounts of energy listening to discussions about a rolly chair and then watching kids push it around the stationary desks and chairs to their respective desks. Suddenly, I just didn't want to deal with the migrating chair anymore. I have too much to think about every day without that. So, after school that day, I took the chair down the hall into the closet and put it there. Now none of us get it.

What is perhaps even funnier is that not one kid has even asked about it. That's how important it was to them. LOL. (Save for one smart girl who stayed after class and said, "You took that chair away because you didn't want to deal with it anymore, didn't you?" and I admitted she was right.)

Why didn't I just say "no" at first? I will never know. Give an inch, take a mile.

The point in the long story is that now that we've started Fences, an instantly likable play that the kids love the cursing on the first page, that classroom management stuff has gone away. They're enthralled. I'm teaching the hell out of it and loving every minute of it.

Now I'm trying to get those kids to take turns playing Troy and Rose, though, and that's tough. It'll be the chair thing all over again, and I can't go and throw it in a closet to forget.

And now I'm going to spend my Saturday night in front of the flicker of the computer screen in my quiet Baltimore house, adding comments and grading essays that the students have e-mailed me. Today was good motivation.

It's making my head hurt. And, honestly, all I want to do is teach.

The BTU came to our school again on Monday, and gave another presentation about why we should vote for the new contract.

I like the woman who presented to us. She is a veteran of the system and is obviously passionate about the contract, which she helped negotiate. However, I asked her this question:

"The contract seems like it could have some good things for teachers, but you're asking us to put our faith into a system that none of us have very much faith in. Almost everyone in this room can tell you stories of paperwork lost by North Avenue or certification issues because of gridlock up there. You say there is a contingency plan by the union if North Avenue cannot keep up their end of the contract and that the union can get out of the contract if that is the case. But... who decides if the system is working or not? I've found Ms. English to be unresponsive to my concerns; she hasn't answered the numerous e-mails I've sent her requesting a 12-month contract, for example. BTU didn't hear teachers' concerns about the contract going too swiftly until we voted it down. If my AUs aren't counted expeditiously, when does this 'contingency' plan come into effect? As a veteran of the system, what is giving you this faith in the system?"

Her answer was basically for me to e-mail her if I have problems and to get more involved in the union if I want more responsiveness. Hmmm.

Basically, the way I figure it, the contract will give me a nominal raise. By the old contract, I was going to make $1300 more in each of the next two years. With this contract, my step increases $200 or so, but I get a 1-time signing bonus of $1500 for this year. Next year, I get a $1750 bonus. So, there is a small raise, of around $400 or so from the previous contract. However, I don't believe the few hundred dollars would have been more than a cost-of-living increase on our old contract, so I'm not jumping up and down about it.

There's a chance that I could become a model teacher, but that has still been left so undefined by the revised contract that I feel like wishing for that might be an exercise in futility. But, maybe... that raise is $20,000 or so, so it would be awesome. I wish there was a National Board stipulation in there.

When asked how the system was going to sustain this contract with the rising salaries, her answer was just as vague as any I've heard: "apparently there has been some grant money found," she said, and that was kind of all. When teachers asked her what happens when the grant money runs out, she didn't have any answer. It's all so weird, and disappointing. I want to love this contract, to have faith in it.

All in all, the whole thing is making my head hurt.

Basically, I believe:

1) that I'll be fine with the new contract. I'll make basically the same amount of money and there's a chance this "model teacher" thing could work out. It's not the great, it's not that bad, it's... eh...

2) teachers will be on annoying AU chases and it could very well end up hurting their performance in the classroom. As a teacher who has taken 6 credits at a time during the school year, I know it severaly affects classroom effectiveness.

3) sometimes, however, the AU will make me do things that I normally wouldn't do. For example, I spent a thousand bucks out of pocket to go to NCTE last year. I can't afford it this year, but, perhaps, if I know it will count for 1-2 AUs, I would be willing to do it. That's not in the contract (they can't even define AUs that nominal amount), but everything that I hear is that it will be. Though I don't know who to trust.

4) the new contract could alleviate some of the unfairness I feel about the teachers who do the least work making the most money in our system

5) The new contract seems ripe for the same type of disparity and unfairness that I now see with the simple every-year thing. Maybe more cronyism, though. But there's always going to be that, I guess. One thing that bugs me is that it seems like the teachers who already have low teaching loads are the ones who will be able to rack up AUs easier, because they're not overburdened with 5 classes and 150 students. Imagining how the AU thing will work in my school, for example, kind of makes my head spin.

It all kind of makes my head hurt. And I'm tired of the rhetoric from both sides.

From the pro-contract side, I'm most sick of the whole "the evaluation-being-set-by-performance is coming anyway, from the state" thing. That's, to me, not a big deal. It was a necessary product of Race for the Top. What we're doing here is tying that untested evaluation system to our salary, which is a whole different thing. Teachers have a real right to be concerned. We have known evaluations to be done unfairly. Some of us teach classes that have no easy test to evaluate how the students learn. We get no say in how a school is run (schedule, class size, especially), so we our hands are tied in many ways regarding student performance. So, yes, we're concerned. But the BTU's insistence that this is coming from the state, when it's not, is really grating on me. Evaluation is. Tying evaluation to pay isn't. That's a huge difference. So many teachers don't understand that because the rhetoric from the pro-contract people has been so effective.

From the anti-contract side, I'm tired of the mixed messages. It's so hard to be unified on anything, agreed, when you're against something. It's like the Republicans now. They're being voted into office because they are the Party of No, and now we will really see what they have to offer in terms of actual governance. But the anti-new contract side has so many different stances on the issue that there is no clarity at all. You have the guy (who I really like, actually) who says this is a war contract, a move to standardize national curricula and indoctrinate youth for whatever the government might need. You have the guy who thinks we need a 7% raise over the next two years and that young teachers who want change are the bane of his existence. Then there are others, who just want to hold out because it would set a possibly worrisome precedent. I respect these people, but their message is being muddled, I think.

As for me, it could be a worrisome precedent, but it also could be a good one. The old system was broken. And I'm not worried for myself. I don't buy that this is merit pay that will encourage competition between teachers. Therefore, I'm a probable yes. I wish the contract was better defined, still, but I don't want to keep hearing about this, honestly. I wish we would wait a year seeing how the state develops the evaluation system before we blindly tie it to pay, but it doesn't appear this is happening. It all makes my head hurt. And all I want to do is teach, honestly.

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