Berea High School:
It has been a little over a month since school started back and this is only my 3rd or 4th visit. I come to the 1st Block Freshmen English class from 8:30-10:03a every Tuesday and Friday. Today the Cooperating Teacher has gotten a flat tire and instructed the (temporary) substitute to have me conduct class (working on laptops to fiinish a writing project) since I have been in class for two weeks and have a better idea of what is going on; I must make it clear here that I had NO prior knowledge to this decision until a student asked the “sub” a question and she directed the entire class to me–talk about SHOCK!
I was given a seating chart on the first day I visited and have been memorizing names and faces according to seats. There has been a student (whose name must remain anonymous, but we will call him Cory Careless) who has–as I am told–been in ISS practically since the beginning of school. This student reads and writes on a SIXTH GRADE level, has already failed TWICE, is in Special Ed. classes (because he’s remedial), and now he’s been out of class for nearly a month (give or take). This student has already been told by the school that it is not a matter of “IF” he’ll get expelled, it’s a matter of “WHEN”. Now he is sitting next to me with no excitement, no motivation, and no clue as to what is going on. How am I supposed to become all those things for him?
I want to become a teacher because I want to make a DIFFERENCE in young people’s lives; I want them to know that at least ONE person is going to take them seriously. I always wondered if a day like this was going to come, but I honestly have to admit that I NEVER thought it would. The clock is ticking and this boy’s future hangs in the balance–did I mention that I’m not even a TEACHER yet? My head is whirling, my heart is breaking, and I feel a sudden impulse to down my 20 oz. of coffee IMMEDIATELY. I take only two gulps and approach this mellowed-out, lackadaisical student who’s presence can be smelled from 10 feet away (“this is NOT about ME,” I have to remind myself as I TRY to adjust to the smell and closeness of this student).
The assignment is to write a paragraph in 3-8 format on something from the book you have been reading for SSR (Silent Sustained Reading). I ask Cory Careless which book he’s been reading and what it’s about (he hasn’t written any journals about it–I would know since I grade these). Cory tells me he is reading “The Hoopster,” but he doesn’t know what’s going on; I ask him, “what page are you on now?” Cory informs me that he’s on page 5………………..this is where all the blood rushes to my feet, my heart sinks, and I can’t catch my breath–anyone else want to throw anymore obstacles in here? I must admit I sighed a prayer here and had another swig of my double espresso latte–I should’ve made it a triple. “Okay, well it sounds like it’s about basketball or something of that sort,” I reply, “is it?”
“Yes ma’am,” Cory says politely as he gives me his full attention. I proceed to continue to ask him questions about the main characters, what he has read SO FAR, and what he thinks will happen. As he dictates his thoughts to me, I jot down everything he says and make a brainstorming page (this was supposed to have been done yesterday, but at least now he’ll actually have a completed assignment for this first nine weeks). I then find a graphic organizer the CT gave me a week ago and explain to Cory how we need to use our brainstorming page to come up with a topic. Cory decides we should write about Sean, the main character, since the book’s about him. After we create a topic sentence we discuss which three details we want to elaborate on and the supporting concepts or examples we will use to better express our thoughts in this paragraph. I then explain to him how the concluding sentence in this paragraph should just BRIEFLY restate everything we’ve written.
THE PAPER IS DONE! I am so relieved I just want to jump up on my desk and do a little happy dance, but for some reason I felt I would never be invited back if I did this, so I refrained. After watching Cory sign on to his computer with the help of a gracious female student, I told him to take the graphic organizer and type everything out into a normal paragraph on Microsoft Word. I then perused the classroom making sure everyone was actually doing work and asking of they needed any help. Some students tried to pull the “I-don’t-know-what-I’m-supposed-to-write” card, but we quickly worked out the kinks as I had them get out their graphic organizer from Monday’s class. With about 40 min. until 2nd block, I approached Cory with high expectation and assurance that he had finished typing–I couldn’t have been more wrong. The blank page nearly blinded me as the cursor seemed to hit and make my head throb with its every pulse. I resumed the position finishing the last of my latte and taking up the graphic organizer.
I continued by reading out loud to Cory the paragraph we had just written while he typed it out. Time flew and we didn’t as each word was either misspelled or Cory couldn’t find the right key. I seriously just wanted to cry. The first sentence went down as the second followed a little slower. Sentence three brought a twinge to my heart as it was typed out at a fairly decent pace–maybe this WON’T take so long after all, I thought to myself. The fourth sentence dashed my hopes to the rocks and brought my head out of the clouds. With the fifth sentence my patience began to wear. Sentence six–please God, only TWO more–my prayer stopped at the ceiling as the bell rang and Cory jumped up faster than I could say, “good job today!”
How do we make a difference, fellow teachers? How do we take a month-long unit and make it comprehensive to a student in an hour and thirty minutes? Honestly, I am still searching for these answers, but I have discovered that the first step is “caring”. I haven’t seen Cory’s grades (or his journals for that matter) since that day, but I have had a heart-to-heart with his teacher and been informed that he has been coming to every class since and is no longer a problem student for her. Could it be that I might have actaully achieved something in an hour and thrity minutes? I don’t know, but what I do know is I look forward to my future career even more now than before the day Cory Careless came into my life.
The first step is caring. The second step is being consistently “there” for the student no matter how ill-prepared, impatient, impulsive, irreverant Cory chooses to be. You see, the key to developing a relationship, especially with a disaffected student, is to deeply commit to understanding the student, his wants, needs and experiences. This takes time and genuine interest in the student. Perhaps you’ll reach him with the content of the class, but only if he knows that you will “be there” for him even when he messes up, dissapoints, or fails to meet your expectations. Do you see what’s wrong..is he trying to meet your expectations or reach his own dreams? You see, you’re trying to help him take a risk in areas where he has no positive experiences and most likely peer ridicule. He’s in an environment when grades are valued over learning and hence risk taking is avoided at all costs. The choices he sees are either 1) blow it off so no one will expect any high quality work or cheat to “fake it” and get the passing grade, because he has learned that the grade is what matters and not the messiness of true learning. Your classroom, when you have your own, needs to one where kids are encouraged to be messy, take learning risks, adventure outside of the GPA cave, and experience learning and growth. Sometime pick up the book Midset by Dweck. Good Luck.