I'm Back!

I am sitting at Greensboro High School, waiting for my students to enter the classroom.  I have swept the room, written everything I need to write on the board, made all my copies, and straightened all the desks, so I thought I would check in with my old abandoned blog since I have about 10 minutes to burn. Teaching high school is an odd experience for me. It seems like it would be quite similar to teaching at YouthBuild, but since it is a public school, I am a bit handcuffed.  I can't just send people home when they start acting stupid like I did at YB.  I have to wait until they have been so horrible that I can't teach, then kick them out of the room. They inevitably end up back the next day with me not knowing if anything was done after I kicked them out. They got paid at YB too, so I could dock pay for doing something wrong. It is also weird that I am teaching English.  Its not that I am bad at the subject, but it definitely isn't my best subject.  I avoided teaching English at YB.  I did some lessons, but if I could come up with an excuse to teach a different subject, I jumped at it. I had to force myself to do at least 1 English lesson each week. All that being said, 2 of the 3 classes I work with now are amazing.  They work hard and are really interested in learning and improving themselves.  The other class isn't so dedicated, but there are a few students in there that do good work.

Liv is now officially overdue (according to the doctor). We had been under then impression that the due date was Nov.15 (tomorrow) but apparently it was the 13th. Liv and I are both ready to become parents.  It is hard to focus on anything else. I figure it will probably be born on the 17th since that seems to be a significant day to me on a regular basis as it is the birthday of one of my best friends, Justin, and my mother-in-law Lawanda and it is the day Maw-maw Jessie and my dog Brandy passed away.

Last Year's Construction Project

Here is a link to last year's construction project as posted by construction manager, Will Holman.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Road-Sign-Fence/

New Disciplinary Method

Fellow educators...

Do you ever have problems with students talking while you teach?

Do your students have never ending outbursts?

Do you just wish that your pupils would just be quiet for 2 minutes so you can think?

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, try my new disciplinary system...

Duct tape!

All you need to do is go to your local hardware store and purchase a roll of this versatile teaching tool.  Not only can you use it to hold things together or put things on bulletin boards, but it can be used to create a quiet classroom.The steps are quite simple...

1. Buy a roll of duct tape. 
2. Tear off a 3-6 inch strip.
3. Use to seal students's lips.

Its that easy! Iy you don't beleive me, ask my students what they think!

They're speechless.



Political Action

One of the hardest conversations I had with my students last semester was when I tried to get them to see the importance of voting.  I have a few that are adamant about voting, but the majority see no point in it and refused to go even if we took them to the polls.  Although it led to some interesting discussions, it was frustrating as a teacher because I couldn't get many of them to realize the improtance of voting.

Now we are in a new semester.   I gave the students the same essay topic as last semester, "Explain why you do or do not vote." The reaction was even worse ths semester than last.  I had a few students even go so far as to refuse to do the essay and just take the infraction and $10 fee that comes along with it. Later on in the week as I was avoiding grading papers I started reading about the House of Representatives passing a new budget bill.  This bill aims to reduce government spending by not cutting many social programs upon which many Greensboro residents rely including Head Start, utility assistance programs,WIC, AmeriCorps Vistas, and YouthBuild.  When I saw this, I talked to my boss and found out she has been following it pretty closely.  Long story short, we decided to do a presentation on the bill for the students as a way to connect politics to their actual lives.

Many of the students got really passionate about the things in the bill and the programs that might get axed. I told them that they could write a letter to a congressman this week instead of their normal essay if they would like.  I thought that would be the end of the lesson, but a few of my students were so fired up that they took it upon themselves to create a small video to send along with the letters.  Some of the fired up students are the same ones that fought me tooth and nail last semester about the futility of being politically active. They spent the entirety of Friday interviewing people involved with YouthBuild and have the first version of the video finished.  They aren't quite in the final stage yet, but I thought I would go ahea and share it here anyways.

They did a great job on the video. I am really proud of my students. We are going to try to overnight the finished video and letters to Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby on Wednesday or Thursday.

Change.org has a petition they are going to send to Congress, asking them to not cut out government funding for YouthBuild. Anyone who would like to sign it can by clicking the link.  I would appreciate anyone it, as would my students.

What a day!

Every day I learn something new.  Today's class taught me to not trust when students tell me that a science experiment will not explode, spread noxious fumes, and bleach my floor tiles. I asked my students to come up wth something to present to the class.  I didn't give many rules other than it had to be school appropriate and it couldn't be dangerous.  Most of them did an OK job coming up with something safe.  I had a couple read poetry, one led a discussion on whether marijuana should be legalized or not, a letter to a congressman, and a handfull of science experiments.  Next time I am going to make sure I give permission for each specific experiment before allowing it to be presented to the class.

I after the explosion, the other bottles started melting and spewing nauseating fumes.  We had to evacuate the classroom while the toxic mixture spilled all over my desk and floor.  I now have some bleached tiles and a horrid smelling classroom.  Luckily, I had the lens cap on the projector and my laptop closed.  One of my students wasn't quite as lucky.  He got hit and had to go to the eye doctor for a chemical burn on his eye. He is fine now, but it was a crazy beginning to the day.  Maybe later I will post some of the tamer presentations, but after this, they weren't all that exciting.

New Classroom Pics





Dan's "Barn Modern" bookshelves he was building for my classroom.



Nasty terrarium that had been sitting in my parents' barn for about 5 years.
Will built the stand for me.



Sarah and Keesh teamed up to paint my front wall green.



Finished bookshelves and bulletin board.  Not sure what the bulletin
board is going to be about yet, but the dominoes look good as a border.



Map wall and clean terrarium with a fake rattlesnake.

Finished classroom.



Here is the students' view.



New Session

It is finally here; a brand new session with brand new kids.  I have a couple returners, but most of this semester's students will be band spankin' new.  The students aren't the only new thing.  My classroom has had an overhaul.  I have a new lighting system, a new custom made white board, some custom made 12 ft long bookshelves, a donated set of 1989 World Book Encyclopedias, an old terrerium like the one I used at Pine Hill Day Camp except about 25 gallons bigger, working windows, 1 newly painted green wall, and a tricked out projector to show videos and computer based graphics to the class. I am having trouble fitting enough desks in my tiny classroom for every student, but I am sure I will fit hem all in there somehow.  I will post pictures of my new classroom  soon.

Truth in Advertising

I have felt pretty useless this week at work.  It has been focused on recruiting and since I am not all that good at small talk and abhor fliers, I was put in charge of radio advertising.  I wrote lots of radio stations but only got replies from a couple.  Ultimately, we ended up placing advertising on WDGM, a sports station in Tuscaloosa that runs JOX sports programming out of Birmingham, and WTUG which is an R&B station.  That week consisted of  lot of me sitting in front of my computer, waiting for people to send me e-mail.  You know how a watched pot never boils? Anyways, here is the spot they are playing.  I will be glad when I am back in the classroom teaching again.

Basketball Jones

I hope everyone had a great Christmahannukwanzika and New Year.  We started off 2011 at YouthBuild by attending an Alabama basketball game.  The students are really into basketball, so they had a great time. They got to stay afterwards to meet the coach. I left early (because I'm old) so I didn't get to meet him, so the highlight of the night was at halftime when the alabama wheelchair basketball team came out and had a 10 minute scrimmage. Alabama ended up demolishing Toledo by a score of 83-41.