Poverty Sucks!

I am impacted everyday by poverty and it is absolutely devastating! Over 75% of the student body at Westwood High School receive free or reduced lunch. It is an extremely poor and transient neighborhood. The implications of poverty are very clear. Westwood High School is an under-achieving school when it comes to test scores, overall school grades, attitude, and self-concept. Most of this is clear only in comparison to other schools. But due to the diverse population of Westwood and the fact that there is an International Baccalaureate program on campus, the most drastic difference is the parental involvement. The high income, high achieving IB student families are super involved and interested in their child's education. The lower income, lower achieving student families are much less involved and seemingly not at all bought in to the value and importance of an education. One of the biggest tragedies I see is that many of the students have very little desire to pursue higher education. This impacts the students in that there is very little motivation to do their best in school, because as long as they get their diploma, nothing else matters to them.

I love it when I get to crush people's souls!

That is what my students act like when they are corrected. I really want to change that perception of feedback and help them understand that receiving feedback is a part of the process of getting better and improving. That is why I love the SIP model and why I always try to keep it in mind whenever I am teaching. I try to be specific, immediate, and positive in my feedback whenever possible. This is important with the academics, but it is even more important with behavioral concerns. One of the biggest pitfalls that authority figures run into is that of broad labels for students with behavioral issues. Many teachers will call them things like 'liars' or 'brats' or 'punks'. This creates severe animosity between teachers and students. However, when a teacher is able to be more specific with their feedback, they have a better chance of helping the student improve and salvaging the relationship at the same time.

Now, this is interesting!

I have a quite a few encounters with unprofessional behavior in the education world. One of the most interesting  experiences revolved around the most recent political season when one of the teachers here on campus was telling students that a certain candidate was a racist. In the middle of this, one of the Teacher Aides actually stated that they liked that particular candidate and that the political discussion should be a little more balanced when discussing candidates. The teacher then called the TA a racist.

When I heard this story, I was flabbergasted! I could not believe that a teacher would cross that ethical boundary of influencing the students in that way, and then compound the first mistake by making another one and alienating the TA and calling them names. This experience highlights two of the biggest pitfalls that lead to unethical behavior. First, a teacher must learn to control their emotions. When our emotions get the best of us, we make big mistakes. Second, teachers must know the ethical expectations and have very clear boundaries with students and staff alike.

Bullying

I have zero recollection of bullying other kids or being bullied when I was in school. I vaguely remember some kids who were bullied, but I never really got to know them very well. I kinda had this uncanny ability to avoid controversy and drama. I have only been in one fight my whole life and that happened when I was in 4th grade. It did not happen at the hands of a bully - it happened with my best friend.

Bullying is something that I struggle with still today. Oftentimes, there is so much "he said, she said" type of stuff that typically occurs that it makes it really hard for me to determine what is really going on. For instance, I have this student in my class right now who states that she is bullied quite a bit by some of the other girls in my class. But, when I have seen things go down, she has had as much a part in the controversy as the other girls have. Who is to say that she is not the bully?

Anyway, enough of the rambling. The bottom line here is that I think bullying is extremely difficult to prove in most cases. In some cases, it is super obvious and should be disciplined quickly.

Big Goals, Little Time

So, I really want to accomplish a few key things this semester. First, I want to successfully have a plan to carry out a quality Community-based Instruction (CBI) program. My goal is to do this CBI at least twice a month for each student. I have not accomplished my goal thus far. I only went on one CBI in the month of August, but I plan to do two for September, October, November, and December. Another goal of mine is to better implement the Alternate State Standards into my math curriculum. The best decision I made for this year is to split up the teaching of Math/Career Skills and Reading/Writing/Science. The other teacher of MIID students at Westwood is teaching Reading/Writing/Science and my focus is only on career skills and Math. This has been an integral improvement for my planning and time. One of the opportunities it allows me is to really hone in on the Math Standards and do a great job of covering these on a consistent basis with my students. The other major goal I have is to create a binder for each of my students where we can save past IEP's, work samples, quarterly testing, and other important documents so that any transition will be seamless. Right now, the records for the MIID students is really terrible. I did not realize that I needed to do this last year, but in learning a lot more about my job this year, I have learned this is a very important part of my job. By Christmas break, I will have created a binder for each student on my caseload.

The only problem with all of these goals are the immense strains on my time and energy. I may have bitten off a bit more than I can chew this year, but I am excited to try to complete it all and be great at the same time.

My new Blog

This is my new blog. I am mostly doing it to satisfy a requirement for one of my classes. However, it may actually become fun, maybe even cathartic, and might be something that I even want to share with my kids and grandkids when I get old. Who knows?!