"WHAT'S UP?!?!?"

Hello, dear blogosphere. It's been a longish break for me, but a needed one.

After a week of zero calls to sub, I 'm back to my ol' shenanigans. Today at my favorite learning disabilities private school, the following conversation occurred between a 4th grade teacher and her class, which includes the Fourth Grade Gangsta (FGG), who is now my most favorite student in the entire world.

Teacher: As you know we are learning about how to write friendly letters today. A friendly letter consists of a return address, heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature. We already know about the return address and heading, so let's talk about greetings. What are some greetings you can give someone in a letter?
student #1: Hi. How are you?
student #2: What have you been doing lately?
student #3: How is your family?
FGG: Well, uh, the greeting that I choose to use is "WHAT'S UP?!?!?" [yelled enthusiastically]
Teacher: Yeah, thanks. And let's talk about closings. What closings can you use at the end of a letter before your signature?
student #1: Sincerely.
student #2: Love.
student #3: Um, yours truly?
FG: Yeah, well, the closing that I use would be "PEACE OUT." [crosses arms gangsta-style]
Teacher: Right. Moving on...

Badass! He wasn't even trying to act out- he was totally serious about it. Maybe it was funnier in person, but i was cracking the fuck up. The teacher was less amused.

Blogging Break

Hey y'all,

I've got a few things I wanted to write about from my experiences teaching Spanish last week... but I need to focus on some other things right now. Primarily, getting a permanent job. Because this is getting ridiculous.

It is easy to get so caught up in the day-to-day realities that you lose sight of the fact that you're putting up with those things in order to do something more with your life, you know?

I'll be back by next week, I think. See you on the flip side.

When Substitute Teaching is Paradise.

So THIS is what having a normal job feels like. I've got a sweet set-up teaching Spanish all week at a prep school.

• I have the same schedule every day, and it's a golden one.
  
• 8:45-11:30am, lunch, 1:15-3:00pm
• I see the same kids every day, and they respect me.
• They don't goof off, and today someone in the hall called out, "hey look! It's Ms. [insert my name here]! They asked if I would be back tomorrow.
  
• The teachers know and like me.
• One of the Spanish teachers said "Oh, so you're subbing for Ms. Garcia? We've heard such wonderful things about you from the substitute coordinator!"
• It's easy to get to work.
• A CTA bus picks me up 25 yds from my front door and drops me off in front of the school. Until Doomsday, that is.
  
• I know where the bathrooms, refrigerators, and teacher's lounges are.
• Hey, this stuff is important.
• There are about 100 restaurants in a 2 block radius of the school.
• For when I don't have breakfast/lunch. Also important, given some of the areas where I've taught.

OK, OK, so it might not be a "normal" job in any sense of the word... it's way better. And it is most definitely not how I imagined my stint in CPS to be. But just being in one stable environment for 2 days in a row has made a world of difference. I'm not tired and stressed out like usual, because I know what to expect. And I still have two more days of the same. Then, back to the real world...

Hasta luego...

Weird Kids: The Fourth Grade Gangsta

I spent Friday and Monday at a private school where I often teach. Today was largely uneventful, but on Friday I spent my first day in the fourth grade classroom, which meant I interacted with a whole new group of Weird Kids. There was one W.K. who stood out from the rest: the Fourth Grade Gangsta.

The Fourth Grade Gangsta is a sweet little boy. He is short and scrawny. He wears his blonde hair in a bowl cut. He has bucked teeth and a squeaky voice. He cannot yet pronounce his R's, making his squeaky voice particularly endearing. And this young boy, at the tender age of 9, has decided that he is indeed a gangsta. He wears big baggy pants, sports jerseys, a baseball cap that he doesn't quite fit into yet, and he spends a lot of time talking about Tony Hawk*, cars, guns, and the like. He also uses a lot of slang in the classroom, as in, "Yo, somebody jacked the pencil shawpenuh!" and "My repouht was on the endanguhed Afwican Wild Dog. They'uh weally fweakin' sweet!!"

During free time, all the fourth graders and the two teachers played a big game of tag. (I'm proud to say that I was able to outrun all of them, even when they tried to grab me and hold me down.) But the best part was that during the game, The Fourth Grade Gangsta would throw a peace-out sign (pound chest twice, make sideways peace sign with smug look on face) whenever he escaped the "it" kid.

Rock on with your bad self, W.K.


P.S. I'll be at a prep school "teaching" Spanish Tuesday- Friday this week! More to come once I catch my breath and learn a few useful phrases.


* His morning journal was all about "Tony Hark"... and woah, I just realized that the misspelling was probably his speech impediment working in reverse... he figured that Hawk must be spelled with an "r" because he says it with a "w," the way he pronounces all his "r's." Heh.

Block Hording and Other Experiences in the Kindergarten Classroom

These children are hoarding blocks in between their crossed legs as we speak.

This morning I got an assignment to work at a south side charter school that I haven't been to before. It took me 3 f-ing months to get the paperwork through CPS in order to work there (hello, 320 N. Elizabeth, again), so I'm glad they finally decided to call me. The unfortunate side of it was that I stayed overnight last night far away from where the school is located. Dammit. But I didn't want to make a bad impression, so I accepted the job and ran out of the apartment unshowered and rather unkempt.

But I had kindergarteners! Yippee! It's hard work teaching the little ones, but it always makes for an interesting day (for better or worse). Today was no exception, though it was remarkably better than previous munchkin experiences in CPS. Today I only had 25 students (imagine!) and one great teacher's aid. Thank god, because otherwise I wouldn't have known what the hell was going on in that classroom. But it was a good school- when I walked in, the kids were in technology class. Remember that these kids are only 5 years old. Also, almost all of them could read, which seemed impressive for halfway through kindergarten, though I'm really not an expert on this age group. They could recognize big words like "because" on sight, and most could read out of simple books. I did encounter a couple who couldn't read yet and seemed to have already given up on the idea; but I'd say the majority of the class was on track. The other nice thing about today was that I got a lot of hugs from the children, which made me feel warm and gooey inside.

The teacher's aid thought the kids were poorly behaved all day, but I didn't think it was so bad. The students were chatty, but there was only one point in the day when they were nearly out of control: math class. See, the teacher left pattern blocks for the kids to play with, but there were only about 50 blocks for the entire class. It isn't fun to play with blocks when you only get 2, so in a genius move, I broke the kids into groups so they could play with blocks together.

Children learn math skills from pattern blocks. Somehow.

That quickly turned out to be a disaster. The groups still didn't have enough blocks to be satisfied (and rightly so), so they resorted to block hording, grabbing, and fighting. There were tears, and yelling, and somebody even got pinched. So I stopped everything and told the kids we had a new plan. Now, we were going to play a game with the blocks. The groups were now to be called teams, and when I would give out directions, each team would compete to do what I said the fastest. Then I explained that you do not fight with team members and if you do, you will certainly lose the game, because you have to work together to complete the directions. I thought it was a pretty smart plan, if only it had worked.

The kids were really excited about the game, but it wasn't long after I called out my directions, "organize your blocks by shape!," that 2 out of 5 groups were back to fighting. More tears, more pinching. My other three groups took first through third place and were quite proud of themselves. The 2 fighting groups never finished the challenge. Again I stopped, but this time I collected the blocks and proceeded to explain for the second time that day how important it is for children to behave for a substitute teacher. My favorite line is, "you wouldn't act like this in front of your teacher, would you?" If only that line worked with high school students. I also let them know that I would write a letter to their teacher telling her how everyone behaved (they were shocked). The end of that conversation went like this:

me: "Do you want me to write a good letter, or a bad letter to your teacher?"
students: "Good!"
me: "I thought so. And what are some of the things you can do to make sure that your teacher gets a good letter? Raise your hands."
kiddie #1: "Be quiet."
kiddie #2: "Listen to the teacher."
kiddie #3: "Keep your bottom in the chair."
kiddie #4: "Show mutual respect."

... Mutual respect?! That's pretty impressive vocabulary for a 5 year old.

But the best line of the day was when a girl named Lashonda came back from art class near to tears. She said the teacher sent her back to "flip her card." for those who haven't been in kindergarten recently, that means the child has to take his or her card, which starts on green, and switch it to yellow or red for bad behavior. It's the same as the traffic light method for monitoring behavior, except it's way harsh when the students have to flip their own cards.

This is how the day starts. It rarely ends like this.

Lashonda took her card out, which was already on yellow, and looked at it for a good five minutes. Then she asked me what color she should flip it to, as if she didn't know. Then she said, "my mama told me I'd better not have to flip my card. She said I'm gonna get a whoopin' if I do." I wasn't really sure how to respond to this. I blinked a couple of times and said in a deadpan voice, "well, what have learned from this experience?" Her answer: "don't flip my card?" Nice try, honey.

Books I Have Read While at Work

marriedtothesea.com

In my old sub job, I spent my days reading all the modern classics that I never read in high school. It was great.

These days I'm a little less focused in my readings, but here is a semi-complete list of books I've read thus far in my stint with CPS:

Brought from Home:
The School of Beauty and Charm-- Melanie Sumner
Calling Out-- Rae Meadows

Coming of Age in Mississippi-- Anne Moody
On Subbing: The First Four Years-- Dave (no last name published)

Borrowed from Teachers' Bookshelves:
Me Talk Pretty One Day-- David Sedaris
There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America-- Alex Kotlowitz
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong-- James W. Loewen
The Skin of our Teeth-- Thorton Wilder

The list of books I read during my old sub job is more impressive (see: pretentious), methinks. From what I remember:

The Sun Also Rises-- Hemingway
The Good Earth-- Pearl S. Buck
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest-- Ken Kesey
L'Etranger-- Camus
The Sheltering Sky-- Paul Bowles
The Catcher in the Rye-- J.D. Salinger

Got any book recommendations?? I've got some time on my hands.

Back to the Grind (or, how I keep myself busy during the day)

Today was CPS's first day back. To prepare, I went to bed early and made sure I could jump up as soon as I got a call in the morning. I figured there would be teachers out there who just weren't quite ready to end their breaks... and I would be waiting to take on their students.

And indeed, I did get a call to work today, although it was half way through first period. Seems the substitute coordinator didn't make it to school himself, so the front office lady was charged with the job of finding subs for the day on top of all her other duties. But, she seems to like me (I'm telling you... this is crucial!), so she called me in.

This was at a great school (one of US New's top 100 schools!) so the kids were awesome, and by awesome, I mostly mean well-behaved. Today was no different, in fact it was one of my easier days subbing in Chicago. I only had to work 5 hours (which I believe will still give me a full day's wages), and I was in a computer class, so every student was working independently on a graphing project. Almost all my classes were freshmen; huzzah! Freshmen are always great. They're always a little goofy, sure, but they stop talking when you say stop, and they ask you for hall passes instead of just rushing the door when they need something from their lockers. And because these guys were in front of computers every period, they stayed focused. And they were actually working on the graph assignment. I don't fully understand it, but I'm pretty sure that if they had been graphing on paper, the classes wouldn't have been so quiet. But set them in front of the monitor and and they're like moths to a light.

Meanwhile I was able to read 120 pages of my book... an impressive feat even for a slow day. (I will make a list of books I have read while at work sometime soon.) When I sub in high schools, most of the time I'm just watching kids do busy work, so I have to bring my own entertainment. I try to use the time wisely by reading quality literature as opposed to something like People Magazine, or by teaching myself to master Sudoku, which I'm getting pretty good at.

I also make a habit of going through the teacher's desk to see if they have anything interesting (or any good mints) in their drawers. I go through their bookshelves to see if there's anything good to read. I make a list of things I want to blog about in a little notebook I keep in my purse. I ponder where I will go during my free periods. And I spend ample time looking at the students and trying to pretend I'm not staring. I look at who talks to whom, I ponder their social cliques, I wonder where they got their clothes, I try to figure out what their family life is like, what grades they make, and what they do in their free time. Now that I think about it, I wonder if I spend a little too much time wondering about my students and eavesdropping on their conversations. Maybe it's a little creepy. They think I'm just trying to make sure they're on task. But they're more interesting when they're not.

Navel-Gazing 2007

A friend sent me this image, so I have no idea where it came from. But it's pretty sweet.

Happy new year, everyone!

Well, the standard fare for blogs around this season is to reflect on the past year. I haven't done much of that recently, but maybe this is a good opportunity to put out some largely non-sarcastic thoughts.

I started blogging in September of 2007 after deciding to substitute in Chicago Public Schools while I looked for full time work. Back in May of '07 I finished a unique master's degree in education. I had focused on informal learning- after school programs, community centers, museums, and activist education. Informal learning is an incredible, exciting field, but it is also a small one, and jobs are hard to come by. Funding isn't very secure for these sorts of programs, so staffing is kept to a bare minimum. They pay is low (significantly lower than public school teachers), but because the jobs can be so fulfilling and draw professionals from a variety of disciplines, they are highly competitive. I assumed I wouldn't have much trouble when I started looking for work. After all, I came from a top-rated school in my field and have several years of experience managing and facilitating programs in Chicago. But although I get a number of interviews with organizations, I haven't been chosen for the job. When I write to the interviewer for feedback, I am consistently told that I come across as bright and enthusiastic and that my professional experiences are quite remarkable. According to what I'm told, the reason I haven't been the one chosen for the position is because someone else applied with several more years of experience. It's frustrating, but that's how it is. And that's how I've spent the majority of my year.

But before all that, when I was completing my master's degree, I did some some pretty cool work, in my opinion anyway. It was my thesis project, but also a paid gig with a non-profit organization. Essentially, I created an after-school program that was a women's group where we focused on healthy relationships. We got together and talked about relationships we saw in music videos, movies, television, and in real life. We talked about them from OUR perspectives. And I spent a lot of time talking about things like equality in relationships, sexual health, acceptance of homosexuality, and resources for abusive relationships. I did as much "teaching" on these topics as I could get away with, and hoped like hell that my students were listening. I should also mention that it was an art program. That is, we used photography and other artistic means to express opinions on these topics. I figured it would be a good way to get into some difficult subject matter.

So that's how I spent the beginning of 2007. It was actually quite a tough time for me. The school I worked in was a relatively rough one. It is a public school located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city (one online source says about 93% of the students are considered low-income; can that be right?), and their graduation rate is up from years past- 59% in 2006. The girls I worked with faced a fair amount of danger just walking to and from school- much of it because of their gender. These teens have seen a lot of violence. I should know; I taught an anti-violence program there before I started this program, so I heard a lot of students respond to this issue in their neighborhood. On top of that, some of them have really messed up ideas about living in the ghetto (their word choice, not mine) and how they'll never get out, so why bother trying to succeed in school. It was a challenging place to be because I had so much to learn from my students about their lives and experiences. I am totally committed to urban education and desperately want to serve in high-need areas, but I also never feel like I belong there. Every day I just tried to keep my eyes open and ask questions and observe as much as possible without making too many assumptions based on tired old stereotypes. I told my students I was there as an educator and researcher because I know that girls- and particularly urban girls- are incredibly smart and resourceful and because I think it's unfortunate that a lot of people don't take them seriously. They agreed with me.

But as an outsider to the school and someone coming from a different background, it was extremely difficult for me to gain the trust of my students, which obviously was important in a program about relationships. It was also a tough time for me because my program was one of the only ones at the school where students were not paid to participate. So, although my recruitment efforts resulted in 20-30 young women expressing interest in the club and signing up to participate, I ultimately could not sustain a core group beyond the first semester of the program. I eventually canceled the program, determining that this was not the right venue for it to succeed in the long run.

I was bolstered in my efforts, though, when I presented my work on this program at a national education conference. The room where I spoke was filled with people and a number them asked for my curriculum after the presentation. Thanks to those educators, I have hope that the program lives on elsewhere. Come to think of it, this is one of the biggest highlights of my year.

Despite all the difficulties of my program, it was an incredible learning experience for me. Part of my hope for 2008 is that I'll find a way to continue this sort of work. It probably wouldn't the same program unless I could find a way to fund it, but I want to find professional work that is likewise challenging and meaningful and makes me rethink my understanding of myself, the students I teach, and the city we live in together.