Skip to main content

66.67% Complete

My school runs on a trimester system (three terms instead of two), which enables our students to acquire credits faster than they would at a traditional two-semester high school system. The second trimester ends this week and unfortunately, I don't foresee the kind of success I saw at the end of the first trimester.

Their trimester final is scheduled for this upcoming Wednesday. It's weird because for some bizarre reason, I'm not looking forward to it. If I'm the teacher and they're the students, why the hell am I the one who is scared?

I suppose I'm erroneously assuming most students aren't going to study (some will, but it's always the usual suspects). Most of my algebra students aren't in the position to be gambling with their grades at this point. Some of these idiots are seniors with a "he'll pass me, I'm a senior" attitude... I love giving people surprises.

It's kind of depressing because some of the students who are in danger of failing this trimester earned low As and high Bs last trimester. I mean, WTF. My teaching style hasn't changed, the material hasn't really gotten that much more difficult. But, attendance has dipped below 50%. Well then...

I'm constantly conflicted: On one hand, I can empathize with what a lot of what students are going through in their lives. I can convince myself that I need to go a little easy on them. Then again, you should at least come to school right? Or at least contact me to get the low down on what you've missed. Perhaps (oh no, I'm about to say it..) stay after school?  You came to this school because you realized you need to get your shit together. Are you? No.
"Yo Mista, I don't do fractions."
Well I don't do make up work. Take this F and deal with it.

Comments

Mr. T said…
Damn right! Make up work is extra work for you, as though you were not busting your ass to begin with!
My principal keep getting on about me giving them "credit recovery" I tell her is they did not make they effort to even come to class the first time why should they be able to do in a weekend what other students spent 2 months doing? Fuck no!

I am also having an attendance problem, though our problem is that the normal 96% is down to 92%. As far as I have heard form other teachers it only gets worse. Right now we are just past the peak of not enough sun, and are simultaneously entering fine weather, this combination does encourage people to wake up in the morning and go sit in a building. Even I thought of playing hooky once to go for a nice long ride (I did not of course, but I thought about it :) )

I am with you on being empathetic, however taking it easy, I don't think, is the answer. If we let their "problems" become an excuse for not doing work, considering these problems will never go away - they don't for anyone, life is hard - then we are building a false sense of accomplishment which will have severely worse effects later on. "you're depressed that your brother is in jail again? find the strength to come to class and make him proud and show him you wont turn out the same way".
Alpha Za said…
If I try to put myself in these kids shoes this is probably why my attitude to school would be so poor.

1. Yo Mista is cool, I don't mind working hard for him for a semester, but yo, I rather be playing ball.

2. I'm not going to college, so whats the point, most teachers will pass me just to get some federal cash and keep their jobs.

3. Economy sucks, I need to be working whilst I'm supposed to be in school.

4. I hate school with all those ppl telling me what to do, My Momma don't tell me what to do.

5. What's the point of an education? The Man makes you go, but why?
Yo Mista! said…
@ Mr. T:

How the fuck is your attendance so high???

I really wasn't exaggerating when I said attendance dipped below 50%.

@ Alpha Za:

Love it. Here are my responses (enjoy):

1) You still need to graduate high school to play ball pro. No professional player has ever made it without graduating high school.

2) I'm not most teachers. Even if you're not going to go college, you're still going to need $ to support yourself. You might be able to get a job now that doesn't need a high school diploma, but those are all minimum wage jobs. In order to climb the ladder and earn more, you need more than just experience. Even if you start your own business, all local banks look at your resume before giving you money to grow your business.

3) That's true. Why can't you do both? That's what adults do, and you do want to be treated like one, right?

4) She will once you're 18 and not helping her with rent. Good luck.

5) Then please move to a third world country. You don't have to go to school there. But you will be an outlier as most actually fight to be educated there. You'll feel stupid really fast.
If we truly empathize with their situations and their life outside of school, we can recognize that there is no life outside of school. By that I mean, we need to teach them that school IS integrated into their life because it is a place that will bring them freedom and power. Most of our students are struggling in one way or another. As an English teacher, in the past 5 years I have heard stories that left me staring, wide-eyed, with nothing else to say but, "Holy _ _ _ _." I've been sought out for advice to situations that i had no answer, suggestion, or words for- dumbstruck. It has made me truly admire them and actually appreciate them for introducing me to this thing I thought I knew about previously: resilience.

Last year, I had a student say in class one day (in response to why he hadn't done any work or been at school for a while) "Miss, I'm having family problems." I knew this already, and believed him. Then I asked the class, how many of you are having "family problems" that you would consider pretty serious right now? We all raised our hands, some more quickly than others.

They know I care about them, because genuine caring is like your grandfather'- it eminates with presence and is undeniable.

My response was as follows: I can't change your family, or anyone elses. I CAN give you a tool that will help you to have more power, options, freedom, and successes in your life, and with that, you can do anything you need to.

Th bottom line- the more problems they are having- the more they need to work now, when they are still young and surrounded by a handful (or even ONE) adult that devotes his/her life to help them.

P.S.

Spoon pens are coming back. rentals will cost one quarter.
Yo Mista! said…
@ Mr and Miss...

I love it - we really need to get the students to realize they all come from similar backgrounds and so did we.

The sooner we can make our school a "home" rather than an institution, the more our students will take advantage of everything we have to offer.

Popular posts from this blog

On My Visit to My Old High School

I had the incredible opportunity to visit my old high school while I was in Chicago last week.  This was something I was really looking forward to; I was worried I wouldn’t have enough time to cram in a visit. I wanted to not only visit my old teachers, but also to walk around the hallways aimlessly and remember what it was like to be me eight years ago. It still blows my mind that I’ve been out of high school for that long. Okay, fine. The voice of accuracy in my head desperately wants me to clarify how long it’s really been. Technically, I had gone back to visit a few of my teachers shortly after I graduated high school, but I choose not to count that as a “proper” visit as I was still in college and coming back home quite often. It’s not like I was living out of the state as I am now. So it doesn’t count, okay? So Wednesday morning, I walked into the visitor’s entrance at gate 3 and received my visitor’s pass for the day. It was odd because as a student, I never en

We Need to Talk About Tenure

The idea and privilege of "tenure" in public education has garnered a lot of attention as of late. Most people who have never worked in education a single day in their lives seem to feel that tenure is unfair and teachers should work under the same expectations that other "regular" and hard-working Americans work under. At least, that's the narrative being presented in the media. Three years ago, I would have agreed, but I didn't know any better. At the college and university level,  tenure  is difficult to obtain and can take 4-8 years. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but from what I think I know, the candidate usually needs to have published some sort of research and have demonstrated a strong teaching record, among other things. Before becoming a high school teacher, I understood why tenure was necessary at the college and university level as it protected academics when they published work that went against the mainstream, and thereby prevented profes

Resurrection

I'm back.  It's been nearly a year since I've last written on Yo Mista!  A lot has changed personally. Yet nothing has changed professionally. And I guess that's why I've been so uninspired to write.  Over the last year, my professional life took a backseat to my personal life. When the dust settled, I realized I didn't want to write  Yo Mista!  anymore. I still felt passionate about my work, but I was somehow uninspired. My day-to-day at school over the last year hasn't changed. I still teach over-age, at-risk students at an alternative high school. Everyday, crazy shit happens in my classroom. Everyday, a student either feels supremely connected to me and my content or feels without direction and completely out of touch with education. My students and I still keep each other on our toes. The only problem is, I'm getting jaded.  This is my fifth year of teaching at-risk youth and I'm getting tired of seeing students arrive to school hig