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.

The scores are in!

I got the kids' scores and they look great!  I had another student pass the test, so that is a total of 3 students that are getting a GED diploma this semester.  I have 1 student who is only 10 points away, and another that is only 20 points.  They are both about 2-3 questions away from passing.  I had another student come up on his math score almost 150 points.  YouthBuild gives bonuses to students who pass subjects for the first time, for moving up 40 points, and for passing the tests.  My students are breaking the bank! Next semester I have 5 that I fully expect to get their diploma and more that could possibly get it if they are really dedicated to studying. I still have 3 students who haven't recieved their scores because thy took it a couple days later.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for them.

We are about to head up to Huntsvegas for the holidays.  Merry Christmahannukwanzikah everybody!

Student pics

Freezing and smoking before the GED test.

I thought this scene was kind of funny.  They were acting like they were freezing to death, but they really needed that cigarette before the GED test. Also, my co-worker Ramell is a photographer in addition to working at YouthBuild.  He took pictures of most of the kids and had them write a word that describes them on their picture.  They turned out nicely.  Some of them are kind of funny because they refuse to smile, but put words like funny or charismatic while they have an expression on their face that says something more along the lines of, "I wanna kill someone." Here is a link to the pics, http://ramellross.com/index.php?/ongoing/2nd-chancers/.

Nature

So you probably already know that I am a proponent of environental education.  It is sometimes a little difficult to do much environmental ed in a GED classroom where most of the students need math more than they need science lessons.  Nevertheless, I did have the opportunity to bring a little bit of nature into the classroom for the students to experience. 



Green anole



I found a couple of green anoles which are all over the place down here.  They are sometimes called American chameleons even though they aren't related to chameleons.  They can change color to blend in with their surroundings.  I put one of them that I found in a jar to get a better look at it.  It was green when I found it, but by the time the students got into the room, it had turned brown to blend in with the color of the desk it was sitting on.  They passed it around and got a good look at it, then I put some leaves and grass in the jar.  In just a couple of minutes it had turned green like it was when I found it.  We then took it outside and released it into a tree.

Praying Mantis

We also found a wicked looking praying mantis.  I brought one in earlier in the semester that was pretty small and had bright green legs, but this one was huge.  It looked like a leaf and kind of freaked out some of the students. We talked about its camoflauge and how it would help with hunting, then let it go out on the pole in whinch we found it. Then I showed them some of the crazy stuff you can find on the internet about praying mantises such as some of the larger ones catching hummingbirds and frogs.





Eastern Box Turtle

The lizards weren't the only reptiles we had in the clasroom this semester.  We also had an eastern box turtle join us on the same day as the collard green harvesting.  Ramell was going to bring it to me earlier, but the turtle escaped in his house for almost a week.  Finally he located it and brought it in for the class to observe.  He was a little bit shy and didn't want to come out of his shell very much, but it was cool to show him to the students.  I ended up letting him go in the woods behind our new house. 

Some of the other wildlife we had were leaf-footed bugs, jumping spiders, an injured pidgeon, a hawk that landed just outside of the classroom, and a cicada nymph. My plan is to start a terrarium in the classroom like I had when I was working at Pine Hill so the students can bring in creatures and we can observe them in a way that isn't quite as harmful to the animals before letting them go.



Eric and his bird



Collard Greens



Check out our humonsterous collards.



My students hanging out with the kids in the garden.

This semester's YouthBuild students cooperated with Greensboro Elementary school on a collard green garden. I may need to get some tips from my students for next year because these were some of the biggest collards I have ever seen.  And they got that way fast, so they were still tender. My students prepared the soil and planted the collards. The elementary students were all assigned one plant to take care of after they were planted.  They were in charge of watering, measure size and growth and lots of other educational activities.  When it came time to harvest, they sold the greens as a fundraiser for the elementary school.  These pictures are of my students at harvest time, interacting with the elementary students who took care of the plants after YB students planted them. Some of the greens that were not sold were harvested, cooked, and served for the school's lunch that day. Another exciting part about the day was the appearance of Terri Sewell who was running for the House of Representative in Alabama. She answered questions for our students and encouraged them to vote.  She soon after became the first black woman to be elected to the House of Representatives in Alabama.

Raheem couldn't wait for lunch, so he got an early start.





Motorcycle Museum



students checkin out the Model-T


Early in the semester, I accompanied the student on a trip to the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum.  Although I am not the biggest motorcycle fan, it was really interesting, and the students had a good time.  There was a race that day on the track directly behind the museum.  You could see them racing out of the window from the upper stories of the museum.  There were lots of old bikes and quite a few motorized bicycles that had pedals and a motor. The best part of the trip, however, was the drive there and back.  The students crack me up.

YB students watching the race.

Still waiting... Still...

Well, the scores weren't posted by the end of the day Friday, so I am still waiting. I hope they come in soon. I am really anxious to see how my students did on their final test of the year. Since I have no classes and don't have scores to report, I figured I would post some of the stuff I meant to post throughout the year that didn't make it on here for various reasons: fleas in comuter room, no internet for a month, computer crash, impromtu relocation of everything we own, and finally me being lazy.

Still Waiting.....

So... The kids took the GED last Sunday, and the scores are supposed to come in some time today. I am sitting here at work... waiting... I hope I have at least 1 more pass.

GED Results

So... I receved the actual test scores of my students today and they are really good. I already knew that 2 passed, but one of those students did so by coming up 90 points on math in a little over 1 month. Most of the other students raised their score at least a little bit, and a couple passed subjects for the first time. One student is only 30 points away from getting his diploma. Another made the highest score ever for a YouthBuild Greensboro student in a single subject with a 560 in reading. The lowest score he made on the 3 subjects he tested in was a 500. Now all he needs is to pass his math test. The next test is scheduled for this Friday (for most of the class) and Saturday (for the other 4). I will have at least 1 more student pass the test this go round, hopefully more.

Long time no post

Wow! It has been a long time since I put anything on here. Since my last post, I have battled a flea infestation (and lost), moved, had a sattelite installer bust a water pipe and never return to fix it, met my new nephew J.J., ate too much on Thanksgiving, crashed my computer, and had 2 students pass their GED. School is going really well right now. We told the students they passed this Friday after calling them in for a meeting and acting like they were in trouble. They were both really excited. We still haven't received the official scores, so I don't know what everyone else made yet. Hopefully this is just a preview of what will happen when the rest of the students take the GED later this month.

YouthBuild on Time Video

Poetry

I began teaching poetry this week.  I have been showing the students lots of different types of poems that I have found on YouTube. Tuesday, I played a profanity riddled rap song and printed out the lyrics. They had to look for similes and metaphors. Some of the students have expressed interest in writing some poetry in class while others seem terrified at the prospect. I tried to draw a parallel between rap music and poetry since they are all fans of hip-hop.  So far we have watched DMX, Saul Williams, Taylor Mali, Charles Bukowski, Maya Angelou, Shel Silverstein, Lord Byron, and Dave Chapelle poems.  I was surprised, but quite a few of them were really into the Lord Byron poem.  They also really liked Saul Williams performing Black Stacy. Tomorrow we are going to watch The Raven and another Saul William poem, Coded Language. Some of the students who have poetry are also going to share or perform (for my rapping students) their works for the rest of the class. I am thinking about downloading a nerd-core rap song to play for them.  I want to expand their horizons.

This week has been much more pleasant for the students than last week was.  They hated the 80 problem fraction test and complained the whole time, but I had one students that finished early and nailed nearly every problem. I had three students get suspended on Friday for various reasons, and another got dismissed from the program, but I also got a new student who only needs to pass the math portion to attain his GED.