How my students practice figurative language

"Your head is so small it's like one of them dried up grapes...oh yeah, a raisin."
"Your head is like Robin to a Batman body."
This exchange would have kept going for a good 30 minutes if another girl didn't tell them to "Shut the f up."

Welcome to bootcamp

That's what I told my kids when they walked into our writing workshop. For the past two days, my department chair and I were downstairs in the basement, holding 3 hour writing workshops. Yesterday was quite possibly one of the most draining days of my short teaching career. While the morning sessions both days got me pumped up and excited, the afternoon sessions were pretty awful.

My 8th period monsters + my department chair's 8th period demons + teacher #3's 8th period, which consists of, for lack of a better word, the rejects from my department chair and me = DISASTER.

All talking, all gossip, all drama. Gotta love teenagers.

The next day was better. It was all my students, but, as usual, it was talk talk talk. While I was talking. So my instructional coach stood up to lecture them. If I were them, I would have hated her.

Dernard, the boy who I so had hope for, that reads at about a 6th grade level and writes at about a 4th grade level, raises his hand. He is sitting by himself in the corner (as usual), acting like an fool (as usual). Instructional coach calls on him.

"Not you, I wanna talk to Ms. Chen."

"Well I guarantee you that she won't be answering your question now, not with that attitude."

Dernard gets pissed off, crumples his paper, sticks it under his desk, and crosses his arms. After helping a few other kids, I finally go over to him.

"Dernard, get to work."
"I ain't doin' work!"
"Why not?"
"Did you hear the way that fat lady talked to me? I ain't doin' this."

I proceed to gently lecture him about respect, keeping in mind his sensitivity. I'm starting to get riled up at his attitude and refusal to work, especially after I felt like I had finally gotten through to this boy after a semester.

I told him a story that another teacher had told me about some woman who had tried to swim across the English channel, but then the fog rolled in and she got scared and the boat pulled her up, then they realized that she was just a mile or so from shore, but she said she got scared (worst run-on sentence ever, I know).

"Are you going to be like that woman and just give up?"
"I said I'm not writing this. So just give me a zero," Dernard replies evenly.

Now I'M pissed off.

"Dernard, we have worked TOO hard and you have made TOO MUCH improvement over these months to just stop now. Your test is NEXT WEEK. You are SO CLOSE, and if you stop practicing now, you're going to be like that woman."
"I don't care! I'm not doing it for her!"
"Then do it for me, ok? Can you do that? No wait, do it for YOURSELF. If you stop right now, you are not only failing me, you are failing YOURSELF because you worked too hard to stop now, and I'm not going to let you. So pick up your paper and get to work. When I get back, I better see one more paragraph."

I stalk off to help the other kids. Lo and behold, when I glance back, Dernard is writing! Angrily, but writing all the same!

Win!

So I think....

Then there's a fire drill. And Dernard refuses to leave. Since we're in the ROTC room, the ROTC teacher, Sergeant D comes out to help. Dernard still refuses, and he and Sergeant D pretty much have it out. We all go outside, and as we come inside, they are still arguing, Dernard is being completely disrespectful, and he cusses at the Sarge.

Great. Job.

So Officer H. comes to take him away. Dernard's parting words.

"I don't care! F*ck this school! I don't care!"

He walks out with Officer H.

If he's suspended, he won't be back until the day of the test. Now that's what I call an emotional day for Ms. Chen.

George

George stopped by during passing period today (it was B day, so he didn't have my class) and asked for the millionth time (ok, that's a hyperbole) if I got the scores back from the practice TAKS test they took two weeks ago.

George, who never did any work first semester, who guessed on every single multiple choice question and left anything that wasn't multiple choice blank, who just didn't CARE at all, has completely transformed.

So when I had to tell him that he had made a 75% percent on the test that he had so laboriously annotated in an effort to utilize every strategy he knew, whether it was eliminating wrong answers or underlining important details, it was both a heartbreaking AND heartwarming moment.

Many other students would smile and say, "Yes! I passed!" with no desire to improve that average score. Upon seeing the 75%, George's face fell. That look of disappointment on his face...

"Ms. Chen! Are you serious?" he moaned. "Not even 80?"

Even though George was disheartened, I felt almost giddy at his dismay. One more kid invested, and Ms. Chen is satisfied.

What made the day even better, I called his great grandmother to share that little story with her. She said I made her day, then proceeded to chat with me for about 20 minutes (you know how older people are...even though she's younger than my grandmother by at least 10 years) about how she had all her friends praying for George.

All I can say is pray a little more, friends, because I really want him to pass the TAKS with at least an 80!

Why We Are Here...

In Dallas ISD, approximately one half of all students meet proficiency standards on TAKS exams. By the 11th grade, only 61% of these students take the SAT; of those, one in nine meet the state standard score. By senior year, only 68% graduate, and just 1 in 5 graduates is deemed college ready. For every 100 students who enter Dallas ISD, 14 will leave the system sufficiently prepared for success in college.

Only 5 miles away, in the Park Cities, students receive a radically different academic experience and exit the school system to attend some of our nation's best colleges. In Highland Park, 96% of students meet the standard on the TAKS exams, and more than 70% of students meet the state standard on the SAT. Almost all students graduate, and 86% of those graduates are prepared for college. As compared with Dallas ISD, students are 5 times more likely to leave high school prepared for success in college.

The typical family living in the Park Cities has an annual income of $200,000. This neighborhood, just north of DISD boundaries, is 97% white. The average south Dallas family earns about $17,000 annually and the neighborhoods are 98% people of color.

Children living in low-income communities are already 2-3 grades behind their higher-income peers by the time they reach fourth grade, and the gap only widens from there.

Nearly 85% of all students in DISD are economically disadvantaged, meaning they qualify for a free or reduce-priced meals.

In 2007, the graduation rate in DISD was 62.5%, compared to a 98.7% graduation rate in Highland Park ISD.

While 56% of students meet proficiency standards on TAKS tests in DISD, 96% of Highland Park ISD students meet those same standards.

Guess my age

So either I look like I'm past 50 years old or Rene's math teacher is not doing his job...

"I can totally imagine Ms. Chen partying in college, with a big afro, and those fat high heels. A diamond top-"

"Rene, do you think I went to college in the '70s?"

"You didn't?!"

This somehow evolved into a debate about my age between the five kids that attended 4th period. I let them take a little break while their classmates attended a meeting. They put a lot of discussion into it. I left very vague answers.

"Ms. Chen, how many years have you been teaching?"
"This is the third school I've worked at." (There was the elementary school at UCLA, then training in Houston.)
"And how long did you work in Hollywood?"
"She's gotta be 29, because you're in college for 4 years, then she taught for 3 years, that's 7 years-"
"No, Ms. Chen is not 29! She's like, 25?"

I finally told them I was in my 20s. This revelation resulted in Rene excitedly asking me if I wanted to be introduced to his 25 year old brother. "Ms. Chen, you'll really like him! He has a tattoo all across here!" He gestures to the entire back of his neck. Rene himself has tattoos all across his arms.

I told them that if they reached their Big Goal for test, I'd tell them my age at the end of the year.
"And will you tell us if you're married?"
"Yep."
"And if you have kids?"
"Yep."
"And whatever else we want to know?"
"Within reason."

I love how these simplest things can motivate these kiddos.

sNO WAY! It's snowing in Texas?

What Ms. Chen does on a snow day:


A foot of snow in Dallas! Thank goodness today was a snow day...no work! I think teachers enjoy snow days more than students...

Thursday morning, I woke up at the usual 6 AM and immediately checked outside my window. Was that - snow? On the ground? Excitedly, I turned on the news to check school closings. Unfortunately, all Dallas ISD schools were open...

So I reluctantly headed out into the cold, lacking appropriate outerwear and footwear. Six kids showed up to 1st period. They refused to do work. Then again, they always do...all they did was complain.
"I should have stayed home today."
"DISD ain't gonna close for nothing."
"Ms. Chen, nobody's gonna show up, we shouldn't have to do no work." "Shouldn't have to do now work?" "We shouldn't have to do ANY work." Well, at least, I guess they've got double negatives down.

Roosevelt in the morning.

Realizing it would be pointless to use my prepared lesson plan on the 20 kids that would show up to my class across the three class periods, I made a quick change of plans (I've become as flexible as silly putty since I started teaching), and whipped up a "fun" writing assignment.

I got 3rd period to work...or at least pretend to work.

All the kids that showed up to 4th period. Rene doesn't like taking pictures. Guess which one is Rene.

The snow kept falling ALL afternoon. Some kids were completely checked out and refused to work, and I didn't blame them. They were sticking their heads out the window, begging me to let them play outside, and arranging a massive snowball fight via texting. ("Ms. Chen, join our snowball fight!" I give them a Look. "Ms. Chen, I thought you were cool," Marco says, shaking his head in disappointment.)

The view from my classroom.

The snow continued to pile up, and by 4th period, they made an announcement that kids could leave early if their parents came to the office to pick them up. With the few students I had left, I gave up on teaching them writing strategies after about 30 minutes of work, and then we just got on the computer and I showed them how to research colleges and financial aid.

I got to leave 5 minutes before school was actually over and my car was BURIED in snow. Kids were throwing snowballs at each other, security was running around, cars were trickling through the parking lot of disgusting, brown slush...it was madness. Driving was horrible. I'm pretty sure most of the people from the east coast think I'm a wimp.

It did not stop snowing all last night. A tree fell outside my apartment.

If I wasn't sick, I think I would have run outside to make snow angels and have a snowball fight. Alas, my poor, old body has been overrun with the sniffles and a sore throat, so looks like I will have to spend my snow day inside, with a cup of cocoa and watching movies. Oh well. :)