What is a professional?

The holiday break is over and the first week of classes has passed. I'm ready to reflect. 

Monday was a normal day: all classes met at their scheduled times. Students seemed peaceful and ready to be back. They missed each other and the routines of the school day. 

My weekly plans would not be useful in two of my four classes due to scheduled testing Tues

thru Thurs. This meant that my Spanish 1A period 2 and my Spanish 2B period 1 would not meet on those days. The weekly plans would be abbreviated to essentials and the quiz would be moved to Monday. My afternoon classes, both Spanish 2B would meet all week normally. This would be a challenge, to keep the 2B classes "on the same page" so to speak, without all of the classes meeting with the same frequency. 

It turned out to be an opportunity to focus my behavioral plan, developed over the break, within the afternoon classes, which have been my most difficult to teach. The quality of instruction had been weaker in those hours the 2 1/2 weeks before the break, so I took the opportunity to teach with greater

depth while keeping track of the behavior with scientific impartiality. 

My goal is that their participation grade reflect their behavior regarding: use of cell phones, profane language, disruptive talk and movement, cheating, tardies and unexcused absences, as well as helpfulness such as passing out books, collecting books, and supporting the instructional atmosphere of

the classroom. The results will be tallied and posted tomorrow: Monday.  My hope is that they see a clear connection between their attention (or lackof it) and their grade. I expect some heated conversations as well.

During the testing I shared responsibility for a group of 11th graders taking a practice ACT, with another teacher, Ms. D. She and I had opportunities to chat in whispers and I learned she is a single teacher with a tough life. Any grain of self-pity was buried when I heard her tell me, (after prompting), that she and her father shared guardianship of four of her nieces and nephews, and that she had to work a second job to make ends meet. One of her sisters had a crack-cocaine addiction and was in and out

of jail. Another sister (who had children) was in jail. The grandmother had been raising that sister's children up until it was discovered that the teenage son had been molesting his 9-year-old sister. This teacher was raising her siblings' children with the help of her father, while putting her

own life on hold. Life isn't fair. So when her car was impounded on Wed. for having an expired driver's license and outstanding parking tickets, I found myself in awe of her strength and focus as a teacher. 

She described teaching math to the lowest performing high school students, not those with

I.E.P.'s but just classrooms full of students who had not learned to add or subtract single digits mentally. I wish my graduate studies at the University of Michigan would study the prevalence of this situation and work to prepare teachers for this. 

Meanwhile, our school may be shut down if the students' scores do not improve at least 10% in each subject measured for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as defined by No Child Left Behind. As it stands now, teachers' unions have no authority to prevent job losses due to this federal mandate which has put pressure on teachers and schools to "turn around" the failure rate of their students. One more year of failures, for many high schools around Detroit means shut down, firings, and ???? what happens to our 1200 students? I reflected on this with a fellow teacher last week; the realization that the teachers in the urban high schools around Detroit right now are the best (most talented, experienced and qualified), these schools will ever see. If they (we) are fired, who will replace us?   Newbies, and those on paid internships, like Teach for America, who will burn out after two years or less. Why? Because the stress the students put on teachers emotionally is huge, and the mental and physical exhaustion of

trying to bridge the curricular standards with the students' level of performance, combined with the constant criticisms and threats made by administrators to bring student scores up is overwhelming, especially for the young, inexperienced teacher who wants to make a difference. The teacher turn-over will sky-rocket.  Perhaps, as the economy improves, many of the teachers will find less antagonistic environments, where the stakes are not so high and the odds aren't stacked against them. Urban education will be in a crisis like we've never seen.

Back to my classrooms. The behavior plans are working well for my 5th hour. They seem able to focus and desire to learn. My 4th hour has some divas (both male and female) who continue to intimidate others with loud and vulgar comments. I have to be careful with some of them because I am familiar with types of students that are cunning and can create situations in which teachers are fired. My 5th hour is noisy too. 

One student came on Friday from VOTEC dressed in scrubs, late as usual, but this time carrying an adult diaper. 5 minutes into the class he had it on over his clothing and was dancing provocatively in front of the class. Later I took his diaper and wouldn't return it until he stayed in his seat and focused on

the lesson. I never envisioned such a scenario. After school on Friday two girls from my 4th hour arranged to meet with me for "tutoring" (which means different things to different people). We met in front of the main office in the hallway since I share a puny office with the other Spanish teacher. There would be NO space at all for a third or fourth person in that room. (It was as spacious as a handicapped bathroom stall).  I used my cart to teach them two of the verbs we had been using in our restaurant scenarios. I had them repeat them and their English meanings aloud. Then I asked them how to create basic sentences in Spanish using me, te, nos, le, or les as the indirect object pronouns. They caught on quickly, but were embarrassed to be attending tutoring in the main hallway. Afterward, I gave them credit for an assignment they had failed and they left with a lighter burden. I proved to myself, that, indeed, I can teach.