Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Ann Arbor anymore.

Three things have happened recently that have made it very clear to me that 1) Macomb is very different than Ann Arbor and 2) I have a lot to learn about a lot of things.

The first two incidents were at parent teacher conferences a few weeks ago:

1. A C is average, right?
I have a student who is in both my English class and one of my German 1 classes.  He's a great kid.  He comes to talk to me, likes to joke around, and he was the one who started my nickname in one of my classes - he calls me Fraunie (sounds like frowny - Frau Nagle -> Frau N -> Fraunie - this has caught on with a few students).  Anyway, I really enjoy having this student in my classes, but he's failing both German and English.  He's failing simply because he's just not doing his homework or projects and he's not studying for quizzes and tests.  I have offered this student extra help several times - I've almost pleaded with him to come meet with me before or after school, but he just won't.  I made him his own special agenda to use to keep track of assignments, but that hasn't worked yet.  I so badly want this kid to pass my classes, so I was really happy that his mom came in to conferences.  I told her how I believed that her son could do well in the class if he just started doing some simple things and how he's very intelligent and how I would help him in any way I could.  I told her all the ways we could bring up his grades from failing to at least a B (this was still early on in the semester...that's looking less likely now).  After I told all of this to her, she said, "Well, a C is average, right?  I think my son is a pretty average kid, so I'm fine with a C or a D.  He doesn't need a B."

I had no idea how to respond.  When I was student teaching in Ann Arbor, many students (and their parents) would freak if their grades went below an A, and anything below a B was simply unacceptable for most students.  I don't think I ever would have heard a parent say that in Ann Arbor.  Don't get me wrong though, there are plenty of students at LCN who have stellar grades and work very hard to keep up their grades.  I was just so surprised to hear that a parent wasn't even willing to push their student to achieve above a C.


2. We live in America.
Also at parent teacher conferences, I saw the parent of one of my students in German 1.  This kid is super excited about German.  He'll yell good morning auf Deutsch across the hall to me every single morning.  He asks a ton of extra questions about how to say things in German.  He's actually interested in the grammar we've been doing so far (very rare in a student).  He has a ton of German music on his ipod now, and he tries to learn the words so he can sing along.  This kid is just so excited and passionate about German, even after just a few months of learning it.  Anyway, this kid's dad came to conferences.  He sat down and the first thing he said to me was something to the effect of, "I'm not very happy that my kid has to take German.  I mean, we live in America, and he's not gonna go anywhere outside of America, so he doesn't need to learn about other languages or cultures.  There's no point to him learning to speak German."  I so badly wanted to respond with something like "Well, the point of him taking German is so that he doesn't end up as close-minded as you, sir."  ...but that probably would have gotten me in trouble, so I just said that his kid is doing really well in the class, so it'll boost his GPA.  I then ended the conference by saying that I hope his kid takes all four years of German and that I'll be encouraging him to travel to Germany with us.

I've never heard an argument against learning a world language like that before, and I don't think I ever would have heard that in Ann Arbor.  I believe very strongly that learning a language isn't just about learning what words mean or how to write a sentence.  I think everything we do needs to be soaked in culture, so that my students can learn about history, art, music - so they can learn to think critically about different ways of living and different ways of thinking.  That, to me, is why studying a world language is so important.  It helps you realize that there's a whole world outside of yourself with a ton of opportunities and experiences just waiting for you.  I am going to do everything I can to make sure this kid stays in German class.


My last story happened just the other day in one of my German 1 classes.

3. What we don't know
I have a student in my class who transferred to the school three weeks into school.  He never came in to catch up on what he'd missed those first three weeks, even though I told him to come in during lunch several times.  He never comes to class with his book or his binder, rarely takes notes, and frequently talks with his classmates when he should be doing classwork.  However, he has been doing fairly well on quizzes, considering his lack of attention in class.  This tells me that he's clearly bright, just not very motivated yet.  The hour that I have this student is split up by lunch (we have one half of class, then they go to lunch, then they come back for the last half...annoying, but that's the way it is).  About two weeks ago, this student started skipping the second half of class almost every day.  I started marking him absent and letting a vice principal know about the problem (still don't know if the VP did anything).  Then, the other day, I sent this kid out into the hall and wrote him up for yelling "faggot" in the middle of class (never an ok word to say...also, this was the first time I've ever sent someone out in the hall).  Then, I didn't see this kid for two days.  The day he finally came back to school and ame to my class, I asked him where he'd been (assuming that he had been skipping again).  In a very different tone of voice than he usually uses with me, he told me that his family had been evicted from their house and had moved into a motel (I later verified this with his counselor, and it turned out to be true).

What are you supposed to do in a situation like that?  Here's a kid, who's usually a nightmare to have in class, sharing a piece of very personal, difficult information.  That got me thinking - how many of his motivational and behavioral problems in my class have been him acting out because of this hard thing he's dealing with outside of school?  What else is going on in his life that I don't know about?  What's going on in my other students' lives that I don't know about?  How are those things affecting how they are in class?  My interaction with this student was a very sharp reminder that I only see an hour of my students' lives per day for the days we're in school.  I'd say I know a lot of my students well, but there are some students about whom I still know very little.  I don't think I should be more lenient with my students just because there might possibly be other things they're dealing with, but this was a reminder that some days, once in a while, it's ok to give a student a break.

Hello again!

It's been a while since my last post.  The main reason for that is this: I am tired.  I. Am. So. Tired.  During my time in undergrad and grad school, there were many times when I was pretty tired.  I pulled a few all-nighters, had several nights with two or three hours of sleep, and usually slept about five or six hours a night.  I liked to keep busy, and certainly had a full schedule in college and grad school.  As busy and tired as I was before though, it was nothing compared to how I've been feeling the past few weeks.

I feel exhausted ALL THE TIME.  Even when I've just slept for fourteen hours straight, I'm just so tired.  My last few Friday and Saturday nights have included me falling asleep by 8:00 or earlier and waking up at least twelve hours later...followed by naps the next afternoon.  I think there are two reasons for why I'm so tired all the time:

1. I work a lot of hours during the week.  I was talking to someone the other day about how much I've been working, and he/she said (as a joke, thankfully), "But teachers only work part time, right?"  Yes, technically my work day (per my contract) ends at 2:30.  And yes, I will get the summer off.  But the idea of that meaning I work only part time makes me want to laugh and cry.  I've been keeping track of how many hours I'm devoting to "work" every week, and the time I spend actually teaching amounts to about half of the time I actually "work."  By "work," I'm including time spent teaching, attending meetings, lesson planning, and grading.  Last week, I "worked" over 70 hours.  Two days ago, I literally had one waking hour in which I wasn't driving or working.  I feel like I'm just complaining now...that's not the point I'm trying to make.  I'm not trying to have a pity party, I'm just still surprised at how much time I'm putting into my job right now.  Anyway, the point is, I've never worked this much ever...AND...

2. When I'm at school, I'm ON.  By that, I mean there is no down time.  My prep hour is the last hour of the day, so I'm super busy from the minute I get to school until my sixth class leaves my classroom.  Also, kids are crazy.  I feel like I should have known this better before now (and I'm sure many of you reading this know this well), but my students can be psycho.  There's always something going on and someone who needs something, so I always need to be on and alert at school.  That has turned out to be super exhausting, and I'm pretty sure that's the main factor in why I'm so tired.  By the time Friday afternoon rolls around, I am spent.

As I write about this, I can hear little voices in my head (many who sound just like Maria Coolican, methods professor extraordinaire) saying that I could be doing things to make my time at school less exhausting.  I remember my ed school professors saying that the teacher shouldn't be the hardest working person in the classroom.  This sounds great in theory, but I'm finding out that it's more difficult to put into practice, because right now I really feel like I'm working harder than my students...but I'm working on it.  I'm sure I'll get some of my energy back as I get better and faster (haha, I almost typed fatter...that's happening too! Some parts of my job have made me turn to ice cream and chocolate) at lesson planning, grading, and classroom management, but for now, I'm just tired.

Everyone keeps telling me that if I can make it to Christmas, I'll be fine for the rest of the year.  A student told me that he heard a radio station playing Christmas music already, so it's not that far away, right??

Conquered: First Night of Parent/Teacher Conferences

It is 8:01 pm and I am officially done with my first night of parent/teacher conferences!  I did it!  No major blowups or catastrophes!  We have six more hours of conferences tomorrow, but I'm very happy today went well.  My mentor, Jim is bugging me that I have to stop writing and leave the building, but I have to tell y'all one small anecdote:

Yesterday, a kid in my class found a live worm wriggling around on my floor.  I teach on the second floor.  How did it get up the stairs?

We're Moving....Again!

It's official.  Kevin and I are moving to Northville in November.  We've reserved an apartment, and our move-in date is November 10.  This will be the fourth time I've moved in 15 months:

• August 2011: Out of my house in Ann Arbor to my parents' in Wixom
• October 2011: Out of my parents' in Wixom to our first apartment in Farmington Hills (after our wedding)
• November 2011: Out of our Farmington Hills apartment to Ann Arbor (after Kevin's surprise new job, which worked out well for me while I was in grad school)
• November 2012: Out of Ann Arbor to Northville (coming soon!)

We still have boxes we never unpacked from our last move...we can probably get rid of that stuff, right?

Anyway, moving to Northville will take about 30 minutes off of my drive to school (YAY!), but will add it to Kevin's drive.  Now we're both looking at about 50 min to work...not necessarily ideal, but at least more equal.  Northville is a pretty great location for us though - it's an area we like, it's closer to good friends, about 10 min from Kevin's brother and my grandparents, 20ish min from both of our parents, and still close enough to Ann Arbor that we can run out to dinner at the Blue Tractor or Jolly Pumpkin on a Friday night. 

Looks like the next month will be filled with teaching, lesson planning, driving...and now packing. =)