Regressing

Horrible day. The closest I have gotten to crying in front of class. 4th period continues to haunt me daily at school, as well as in my sleep. Isn't this who teaching thing suppose to get better? It is the end of the year and students are either (a) stressed/freaking out, or (b) totally checked out. Lately, I have also been walking the line between the two.

I feel as if my 4th period class has regressed back to their old, terrorizing, ways.I went on a little tour back to my blog in September and was shocked at what I found. Here is an excerpt from Sept. 21st, 2009:


Week 4 was by far the worst for me and all of my roommates. The exhaustion we felt seeped into our bones and our entire bodies hurt from sleep deprivation. My students are quickly polarizing between getting As or Fs, as well as Hating or Loving me. None of them can possibly like me as a teacher (because I suck) but I have gotten to know some of the students personally so they've got my back and help me get through the day. My classes are so boring and the students are starting to vocalize it. Some of them just sit there all period bugging other kids, not caring about grades or personal threats. How can you get a senior in your freshman class (who has failed this class 3 times already) to care? I can't figure it out.... Friday was the absolute worst: people ripping up tests, ditching school, getting taken out of class by the cops, yelling out in class how much they hate the class, and then failing miserably on the quiz. Period 4 is going to be the end of me.

The sad thing is that I am still noticing many of the same trends: extreme exhaustion, polorized grades, students who hate me (I'm sure even more than before), students ditching, boring classes, and 4th period ruining my life.

But I also notice how somethings have improved: no more ripped tests, no more police officers removing my students, I can control my students on most days, and (some of) my seniors have finally gotten their crap together. So even through the rain, I see a ray of light.

2 more weeks of school. I have come so far from day 1, even though at times it is hard to remember. Next week my students are taking their FINAL EXAM. Will they reach their big goal of 81% that we have worked on the entire year? Things are looking bleak.

-Ms. Q

Week Without Walls: Day 5

Words are not enough to explain the amazingness of this week. Photos will have to do :)

Click on the link to see why I should be running summer camps and not teaching English (look for the spelling error :)

Week Without Walls: Salsa Dancing

More on today's performance mas tarde. I am EXHAUSTED and ready for happy hour! I will leave you with some quotes from today:

"Yo dude, so what did you do on your WWW trip? HA I don't care. Salsa dancing was better."
"Ms. Quane. Word has it that you can shake your hips like nobody's business. Can I see?"
"Can you do the dance one more time? I want to record it for my myspace page."
"I wish I got to do Salsa" (from a girl who changed groups because she was afraid to dance)
"My favorite part of the trip was hanging out with new friends AND the teachers."
"Best dance move? The bootie shake. DUH."

<3 Ms. Q

Week Without Walls: Day 4

Too exhausted to write. Last day of Week Without Walls is tomorrow. This may be the BEST week of "school" I have had all year. I am currently staying up way later than I should to put together a slide show of the week, so keep your eyes posted for the youtube link in future Blog Posts.

Highlights of today:
Morning Exercise: We are at the bus stop on 98th street. Where is Ms. Quane's camera? We have no idea. I am worried, not because my brand new camera may be lost, but because I wouldn't be able to take pictures of my students today! The bus is arriving in 5 minutes. What do I do? Sprint a mile back to school. Find my camera under some papers. Sprint a mile back to the bus stop as I see the bus turning the corner and I hop on with seconds to spare. And all my students could say was, "Man Ms. Q you are so RED." Thanks kids. Thanks.

Dancing: We know salsa, the electric slide, and today we even learned the TANGO. Get ready to groove with Ms. Q.

Buddy System: Out of the 7 boys on our trip, 5 of them habitually get separated from the group and mysteriously disappear at opportune moments. Solution? Babysitters i.e. buddy system. While other students buddied with each other, 3 of the boys got buddied with Ms. Q. If anyone in the group says/spells/implies the word, "BUDDY" all members of the group must raise their fist in the air. If a member of the buddy group does not raise their hand (because they are too far away from the group) all members have full permission to punch the straggler. Problem solved. Having an excuse to punch students is great (they got to hit me in the arm a couple of times too).

Tired. Happy. Sore. Can't wait for tomorrow's performance!

<3 Ms. Quane

Week Without Walls: Day 3

2 hours of salsa/merange/electric slide dancing + 2 hours of transportation via BART/bus + 200 candid photos/videos + 20 inner city Oakland students= infinite unbelievable memories. Today was another day of fun in Week Without Walls: Get your groove on with SALSA DANCING!

9am- Every team needs a uniform. For our Salsa dancing team we created our own uniform with T-shirts and spray paint. Our students used their natural talent for spray painting (jkjk) to make graffiti art on their shirts. I was very impressed on how snazzy the shirts turned out and how creative the students got.

10:30am- Walk to the bus stop. We've finally got the timing down right; only a 20 minute wait today! We had the boombox blaring and the students hanging out so it wasn't all that bad.

11am- We get off the BART station in West Oakland. We had 20 students, and suddenly we have 17. Oh no. We split up calling names and searching the station. We KNOW they got off the BART, but who knows where these students went. 5 frantic minutes later we find them; the 3 boys were hiding from us behind a corner. They were laughing. Ms. Q and Stra. Braun were not.

12-2pm- DANCING! Today we finished our SEXY (and oh do I mean sexy) salsa dance. It involves dips, diva walks, bootie shaking, spins, and oh yeah, the standard salsa steps. It is not the "traditional" salsa I expected, but let me tell you the kids love it! Keep your eyes peeled for a youtube video :)

4pm- We finally get back to school, absolutely exhausted, stressed out, and dragging. My feet hurt. My eyes are heavy. I smell. I am carrying a large bag of half eaten snacks, ban aids, and garbage. So this is what being a mother of 20 kids is like. Even after a crazy day like this, I think of my chicas doing their dance, and I can't help but smile. :) I truly love my students so much!

At the end of every day, we give out SUPER STAR buttons to students who did something outstanding. Over the week we have had students get their SUPER STAR buttons for being the first to get the courage to dance in front of everyone, helping the teacher's prepare the activities, and even for giving up their seat on the bus for an elderly couple. These are the moments when I fall in love with teaching kids again (trust me, this feeling won't last long. Next week is FINAL's REVIEW! duh duh duh).

Tomorrow: Last day to learn the dance.
Friday: Get your grove on with the LIVE performance in front of the school!
Saturday: Plan plan plan. Only 3 more weeks of school!

<3 Ms. Q

Week Without Walls: Day 2

Right now I am holding back a smile that just refuses to stay hidden. I cannot help but smile when I think about today; our first day of SALSA DANCING for Week Without Walls. Here is a brief brief summary of my day.

9am: Class starts. Ever kid gets a water bottle for them to decorate and hold as their own for the week. Hydration is essential and the students love having something for themselves.

9:30am- Yoga with Ms. Quane. Cue creepy medication music. Lights off. You can imagine the giggles when we did downward facing dog. Their laughter was a signal that this was too easy. They weren't laughing after our ab workout :)

10am-10:45- Walk to the bus stop. The 10:15am bus never arrives so we wait for the 10:45am bus. After realizing how bad Oakland transportation is, I vowed to my students that we will be writing letters to our congress person demanding changes. Just Me, Caroline, and 20 Oakland students on a street corner with a boom box. Good thing crack heads don't hang around at that hour. We had dance offs and plenty of snacks to keep us going.

11am-11:45 BART ride. Apparently our main activity today was WAITING for transportation. This is the best WWW ever! lol

12pm-2pm: Salsa Class begins. The first move the ladies learn: Diva walk. The next move: ladies put their hands on the guy's chests and shake their bootie. The guys dip left and right. Salsa just got a bit more spicy! The kids loved it, the teacher's loved it, and we were laughing the entire time. Even the most shy anti-dancing guys in our group were up in front showing their stuff. By the end people were practicing moves on each other and twirling people around. Smiles were everywhere. I even walked into the girl's bathroom to over hear some of the shy freshmen girls:

"OMG did you see it when he did that move! I almost died. It was so funny!"
"I know. I didn't think that I would get it, but I did."
"I am so excited to do this tomorrow."
"How did I look? I know I looked good!"
"I'm going to go home and practice to get ready for tomorrow"
"I really appreciate all of the hard work Ms. Quane and Srta. Braun put into Week Without Walls because I am learning so much and having fun at the same time! Thank you to everyone who donated too!"

Well, all but the last one is true, but I hope by tomorrow they will be preaching their thanks to us and everyone who made this amazing even possible. I must say that seeing their smiles really made this entire YEAR worth it. When students ask me, "Are we coming back tomorrow?" and I say, "YES" I can't help but glow when they start jumping up and down excitedly. Yes, these are my hard core Oakland students jumping with giddy joy. These are the moments I need to soak in because I know that they don't last long.

Itinerary for the week: 2 more days of dancing (crafts in the morning), and performance on FRIDAY in front of the school. Even if everything turns to hell, I will remember the amazingness of today. More adventures to come!

<3 Ms. Quane

P.s. As I was walking down the streets of West Oakland with my students, a car stops and yells my name out the window. Who was it? UNCLE TIM! Yes, my dad's brother randomly sees me on the street. What are the chances of that?!?! Funny thing is, my students kept saying, "OOooo! Ms. Q we thought that was your boyfriend. We know you like older men." Sick and disturbing on so many levels, but a good laugh none the less.

Countdown: 5 weeks

I have 5 more weeks of school, then SUMMER TIME is here. It is going to be a rude awaking for me when school actually comes to a stop. My work-a-holic nature is going to probably freak out and not know what to do with itself. I will end up lesson planning for the next year or calling my students so I can get my daily dosage of adolescent drama. I am going to have to re-learn how to relax.

Good thing I also packed my summer full so I really won't have too much time to relax (go me...). I have a horrible tenancy to want to do EVERYTHING so I book myself so full that things start to overlap and conflict. From induction coordinator with TFA, to Fashion and Design instructor with Galileo, I am going to be busy busy busy. But hopefully it will be all smiles.

The marathon that is teaching feels like it will never end. There will never be a break from the endless cycle of 6:30am wake up calls, 8+ hour days, lesson planning into the night, and daily battles in my classroom. I also know that once the cycle finally ends, summer will come to an end, and I start over again; 2nd year here I come.

-Ms. Q

Teacher Coaches

Walkie Talkie? Check. Ear piece? Check. Teacher Coach sitting in the back of the class? Check. Students ready to get into an argument? Check and check. Today was my first day of "Read Time Coaching." Let's just say the first thing I did when I got home was crack open a beer and ate scoop of ice cream. It was a rough day.

Real Time Coaching is this new teacher-coach program that has the coach in the back of the room watching the chaos unfold. In the moment, the coach can speak into the walkie talkie that is connected to the teacher's ear piece to tell them what to do. Basically it is the little voice in your head of wisdom that pushes you to do the right thing at the right time. Or in my case, kick out 6 kids when I normally would let slide. Even though she made the final decision and told me what to do, I still had to deal with the aftermath of the angered teenagers and hear what they think about my new "stricter" discipline plan. Let's just say, the crowd wasn't pleased.

4th period was pretty bad, but I must admit, I have put up with much much worst behavior. After my coach sat through my notorious 4th period (after which 2 students got suspended) she said, "Kellee, I have been doing this for 30 years and that class was a tough one." At least that validates my experience with 4th period.

I called my coach after school to talk about what happened and to get tips for tomorrow. Basically tomorrow I have to be prepared: plenty of referral sheets, a hard-ass attitude, and explicit expectations. Bring it.

At the end of our conversation my coach also kindly added, "I don't give out compliment when they aren't deserved; I say it like it is. But today, I was impressed how you held it together. Any lesser teacher would have broken down and cried." High five for the new teacher.

So tomorrow is a new day, and a new battle field. Today I caught my students off guard; Tomorrow, they are going to be a bit more prepared. I am dreading it, but all I can do now is think to how AWESOME my behavior management will be by the beginning of school next year. Those freshmen won't know what hit them.

-Ms. Q

Positives:
- Not only is my coach helping me, but she is coaching my administration. THANK GOODNESS because they neeeeeed help.
- Next week is CSTs i.e. no lesson plans!
- Week Without Walls Salsa Dancing Edition is in 2 weeks. Can't wait!
- 6 more weeks of school. OMG
- I met my co-workers for my summer job (I am a fashion and design instructor through Galileo Learning). They are amazing and I am already so excited to get to know such interesting people.
- Only 6 weeks of school left!
- I am redecorating my room. FINALLY
- I went home last weekend and got lots of family time. Happy B-day MOMMY!
- Did I mention I only have 6 more weeks of school?