Late to the Dance

Life really did get better at 40. Not perfect, but better. Great job, bad, bad hair, good TV, bad books, not enough exercise, bad doctor, a few good flicks, loser in the "relationship" department, good visits with Erin... See, lots of good stuff but too many bad things that I still have to work out. So this is me, working it out.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Life at School - because there is no other life right now - and I'm okay with that

School starts and the world changes. For me, anyway. Back to being obsessed. Between the Newspaper, Yearbook, and my planned Drama Club, I can see me working 13 hours a day, no problem. Plus the "new teacher" stuff I have to do every week. I honestly do not understand how my co-workers leave at 4:00pm and keep up on grades and lesson plans and all that good stuff. I feel overwhelmed. But it is interesting and sometimes fun, so I'll take the "overwhelmed" and just try to find some balance somewhere. I have a lot of students that I really like - some who make me crazy, of course - but there are definitely kids who come to school eager to learn.

Then there are the kids who come to school for unknown reasons. The taggers, the gang members, the uninterested, uninformed, unwilling and uneducated, the angry kids who see no purpose in school. Something happened this year and our school became a dumping ground for kids with attendance problems. They got kicked out of their schools and landed at ours. Which is NOT lovely.

I had the pleasure of discovering our most prolific graffiti artist and turning him in. He was given a choice - withdraw from the school on your own, or face being expelled and criminal prosecution. He withdrew. AFTER he withdrew, I found out that he has been in prison 3 times for car theft and that he carries a gun in his car. And he still has friends left at the school. One of his friends continued the graffiti but I figured out who that second vandal was and let the administration know. Unlike the first guy, we didn't have hard evidence so this second kid got a lot of not-so-subtle class lectures from me and another teacher and seems to have stopped the "artwork" - in the meantime, the poor guys have to check out a key every time they want to use the bathroom.

Graffiti isn't a big problem at the school. We have a zero tolerance policy and we paint over ANYTHING immediately so there isn't a lot of gratification for the tagger. So our rooms are clean, our walls are clear, and the school is well-kept. Not that the kids do a lot to keep it that way. I have never seen so many wrappers and cans on the ground (but our janitorial staff does a great job of cleaning up after these kids each evening). They could be 5 steps from a trashcan but still use the ground instead. Zero pride in their school. I remember reading about a Japanese school where the kids spent about an hour each day cleaning up after themselves - which, of course, guaranteed they wouldn't make many messes! If we did something like that, we just wouldn't have any kids enrolled.

Pride is something we have been talking about at our staff meetings - how to develop school pride. We know that sports are usually the way to develop school pride - but we don't have ANY facilities so the students don't get pep rallies, don't get to go to home games (our home games are never "at home"), and we don't have a football team so the cheerleaders are only involved in basketball games. The principal wants to create a school song and/or a school motto. Another teacher has suggested the staff wear school shirts on Casual Fridays. I think each class should have an advisor that stays with them through their senior year and that the senior class gives the school a gift that improves the school in some way. And, of course, my design class will eventually be working on designing our school name into a logo for the website, maybe for sports, maybe for school gear...

Any ideas?

In Erin's senior year they did a Shakespeare play outside in this grove of trees. The audience sat at tables and enjoyed dinner (well, I would have enjoyed it, but as I recall, my chicken was raw) and watched the play. Since we don't have an auditorium at our school, I thought it might be fun to do something similar at our school. I'm not sure there is a student at our school who could handle a lead role in a Shakespeare play - but maybe an evening of beloved Shakespeare scenes? Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth - they each have at least a few brilliant scenes these kids could handle. Anyway, that's my plan - an early evening of al fresco dining and Shakespeare plays. I wonder when the best time of year to put on such a thing would be? January? Of course the evenings end quickly in January... Maybe a picnic lunch on a Saturday afternoon in January?

Comments?

Hey, our first issue of the newspaper will come out this week. I'm kind of excited even though a lot of students didn't step up. The ones who did surprised me. It turns out I have a couple of kids who are great at being responsible even if the writing is iffy. Hmmm, the bright, responsible ones are almost all teen moms or dads. Ponder that one. And get back to me.

3 Comments:

At 11:36 AM, Blogger maggie said...

Hey Andrea- Great post. January is too chilly in the evening. However, an evening dinner in later March would be lovely. Perhaps Heritage Square would donate their space under the pavilion during the school week.

If you haven't already, you need to read or watch the move Freedom Writers. This is YOU. You may get some other ideas- and I'm sure many kids in your class liked the movie.

Here's the link. http://www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/site/c.kqIXL2PFJtH/b.2259975/k.BF19/Home.htm

I'll send you an email just in case this link doesn't work.

 
At 7:13 PM, Blogger Bruce Penman said...

Here's a comment/suggestion:

Put card readers on the bathroom doors. No tailgating, either. If two people are in the bathroom they both get some form of punishment. Kids have to carry a card to use the restrooms. I LOVE IT.

 
At 8:40 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Wow... school must be really busy... no posting! Where r u? Maybe the natives took you hostage!

 

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