At 3:05 today, 3rd quarter for the students will be over. Shortly thereafter, despite a teacher workday tomorrow, I will get in my car and head South towards Roanoke, where I will tomorrow and Saturday be volunteering yet again at a Mission of Mercy free dental event.
With the exception of a few AP students who have to make up yesterday's unit test today, all work for the quarter is graded and in the computer. Grades for the three non-AP classes have been submitted, and by 3:15 or so grades for the rest will be in.
Three of four quarters will be completed, even though less than 3/4 of the school days, with the year extended for four of the nine days we missed for snow events.
Why this diary? Just a few thoughts this morning on this milepost of the academic year. There is neither great prose nor significant insight, but perhaps you will join me for a few minutes, a few more words, below the fold.
I awaken this morning to know that the Reconciliation Bill will have to go back to the House, but that otherwise the Democrats in the Senate are meeting their commitment to move expeditiously to fix issues in their version of health insurance reform that concerned the House. That gives me hope that the kinds of conflict between the two chambers that has at the time paralyzed the ability of our national legislative branch to get things done may slowly be becoming a thing of the past, except insofar as the Republicans are continuing to be obstreperous. And that leads me to look at our students - mine in particular.
Some of our biggest problem students are seniors. And it is about now that they realize that they might be putting their graduation in jeopardy. I think of one young man in my homeroom, whom I will call Edgar (not his real name). He started the year in real jeopardy, had to take senior English at night school while he was taking junior English (which he had failed) during the day. That was one requirement he had to meet. The other is to pass my class - it is a state requirement. Edgar is not stupid - having passed 2nd quarter and knowing he is passing 3rd quarter, he had realized that he would get credit for the course, and had stopped doing his work, was starting to become a real behavior problem, often showed up tardy unexcused. It was only when I pulled him aside to point out that sometimes he came so tardy that I could list it as an unexcused absence, and that upon the 10th unexcused absence he would no longer get credit for the course - and thus would not graduate - that I began to get his attention. I then was also able to explain to him that he had not yet completed his mandatory 36 hours of community service, without which he could not graduate, and that there were several other issues that could prevent him from walking across the stage with his classmate. Finally I fired the biggest gun - even if he graduated, if his behavior continued the way it was going he might not be allowed to go walk across the stage or to the prom: among other things, he was ignoring some relatively minor fines he owed. Since that conversation, while Edgar is far from a model student, he is now almost always on time, and if late arrives before the morning announcements are over. He is doing my work, and rarely disrupts the class. For me, he is however belatedly a success story.
Not so for some of my non-seniors. There is one sophomore girl, let's call her Latoya (again, not her real name). LaToya is quite bright, but it makes no difference if she continues her self-destructive behavior. She was coming late, illegally picking up a late bus pass to excuse her tardies (she is, as I found out by calling home, a walker). One day she decided to forge a note excusing an absence. The note caught my attention, which led to my calling home to verify, which led to her getting caught - not only on the forgery, but on the bus passes as well. She suffered some disciplinary consequences from her administrator, which led to her briefly changing her behavior, but now she has decided she will simply not show up to my class. She is thus officially absent from school, even though she is arriving at her other classes. I am thus confronted with a difficult choice. If I call this to the attention of her administrator, she will be suspended, then will probably stop coming completely. If I do not act, she would receive credit for my course because, like Edgar, she has already passed two quarters (one with a B). It used to be if a student failed 3rd and 4th quarter, they could not get credit, even if each of the first two quarters had been an A. Now, with our (horrible for all sorts of reasons) new computerized attendance and grading computer system, she will pass the course unless I force her into a no-credit grade, which will require formal notification of her parent and her administrator. Yet she is passing all other courses, because she show up for them and does the work. I worry that when I report her - which I will be doing at the start of 4th quarter, she may decide to totally blow off school. I feel frustrated that I have not found a way of reaching her, of getting her not to be so self-destructive. I feel as if somehow I am failing her.
Then there are my two new mothers, one a senior, one a junior, both of whom, after more than 4 weeks out around the time of giving birth, are continuing to miss one to two days of school each week. There are health issues for both them and their children. We are not really organized for situations such as theirs. One does all I ask, even though my class is a struggle. The other - let's say Brittany (not her name) has an attitude problem. I have confirmed that it is consistent in all her classes, with her administrator, and her guidance counselor. Like Latoya, she is quite bright, and when she does her work and studies has no problem pulling a B and with a little effort an A. She is failing this quarter because she refuses to make up work, and was unexcused on the day of one major test which is an automatic zero. She expects the world to stop for her on her demand, and gets angry when it does not. She lacks impulse control.
Which brings me back to politics. I look at some of the Republicans and their minions on broadcast media and cable, and I see things that remind me of my students. They are quite willing to pull the temple down around them, regardless of the cost to other people. They act out in immature ways. They have a hard time accepting that what they do is wrong, or that they have to be responsible to anyone or anything other than themselves - and they are not all that responsible even to their own longterm interests.
I am less concerned about politics than I am about persons. Each child I fail to reach concerns me. It does not matter what praise I may receive for my teaching, what honors may come my way. Each child is a separate responsibility. I reached Edgar, however belatedly. I still have not reached Latoya or Brittany. I fear that I no longer can - because for whatever reasons they have decided not to listen to me.
I cannot let my concern for them so consume me that I forget to address the needs of the rest of my students.
Which reminds me - that the Democrats on the Hill and the President cannot be so concerned about bipartisanship that they forget the needs of the rest of America.
Lessons from my classroom? Perhaps.
One lesson is this - that most people have little understanding of the life and work of a teacher. So much of it has little to do with the content area for which some wish to hold us teachers accountable solely by the test scores of the students. Before we can even get to content, we have to get to the students. We must find a way to connect, to help them understand how self-destructive they are being - and application of punitive sanctions such as inschool or regular suspension, is a decreasingly ineffective method for many of our students.
3/4 - three of four semesters are now finished. I will have 11 days away from my students. And them from me. I am giving no work to my non-AP students. It is not too late for any, academically, if they are willing to try. Which is why I cannot give up them completely, even as I must concentrate on what I can do to help those who try and are struggling, as well as challenge those who might be prepared to sit back and relax.
3/4 of the year, but not 3/4 of the learning, because the most important learning is to begin to put it all together. Not because there are state and AP exams. But because the content should have meaning for the students beyond such exams, or we are wasting their time and ours. And we would be wasting a most valuable resource - the life and minds of our young people.
3/4 - I stop, I type these thoughts.
Now I will get dressed and head out for the last day of third quarter.
Wish all of us - teachers, administrators, counselors, security personnel, office personnel, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and most of all, students - well.
Peace.