Teaching journal 2/26 - 3/1

Not today, Satan. Well, actually, maybe today.

Recap: I’m a teacher in San Diego. I teach English Language Development (ELD, the new term for ESL) to 9-12 grade newcomers to the country. On January 3, I was informed that my position would be eliminated next year. This journal is a chronicle of my current experience before it ends. Hope you enjoy. 

First, a recap from the previous week

There was no teaching journal last week, which is fine because it was a short week and not a lot happened. The only thing I want to add is that I gave a vocabulary test on Thursday and to prepare, I created a game of Jeopardy for the students. There’s a site called JeopardyLabs that has the interface all set up, and all you need to do is put in the questions/answers. Then you can just throw it up on the Promethean board, and voila: an interactive Jeopardy board. 

I have tried very hard to sell the kids on Jeopardy since the beginning of the year, and the response has always been very lukewarm. I think it’s because I’ve knocked the competitiveness down a lot, but I know if I do the traditional timed buzzer response, I’ll only get the advanced kids buzzing in.

To level the playing field, I’ve tried giving each team an opportunity at the board, but that really slows the whole game down, and groups that aren’t at the board don’t pay attention. 

But then I figured it out. 

Mrs. E, the math teacher I help during second period, does this game before tests called Trashketball. All teams are in play during each question, and they must present their answers on a whiteboard. They then have the opportunity for another point by shooting a basketball into a little hoop Mrs. E has over her door. If the students’ answers are correct, they shoot from a short distance; if they’re incorrect, they shoot from a farther distance. 

That’s what I wanted. I wanted my own Trashketball.

But of course it couldn’t be Trashketball because the kids will always call you out if you do anything similar to another teacher. So I ordered a big cloth dartboard that came with a bunch of ping-pong balls wrapped in velcro. Same rules as Trashketball, but with velcro balls and a dartboard. 

It was the best investment I’ve ever made.

Kids were into throwing the ball like their lives depended on it. It was absolute chaos. Students who never talk to each other were clapping each other on the back after a good throw. Teams were helping other teams fix their sentences. And even my most disengaged students wanted to participate. So that was my one smart move as a teacher last week

Monday, February 26, 2024

When I logged into PowerSchool today, the Duo authenticator gave me 666 as my one-time code. Hm. So that’s how you’re going to play it, Monday/Satan?  

I began both first and third periods with a journal prompt: how are you feeling today? And what did you do over the weekend? 

Whenever I do the vibe checks, I display a screen with sentence frames, an emotion chart and a series of images showing activities one might do on a weekend. There’s also sentence frames that they copy in their notebooks.  

I’ve been doing this same entry for most of the year, so for some advanced students, this is very easy, but we’ve had so many new kids arrive recently, and I want them to be able to hear their peers speaking English. Plus the repetition is useful for everybody. 

After they write in their notebooks, I go around the room and ask every student the same question. I used to make sharing voluntary but now it’s mandatory. For the most part, the kids love sharing, and even the shy students participate. I have a student from Burundi, Africa whose speaking confidence has improved so much over the past few months, and today he was the first to volunteer. Hell yeah.

The kids have started this new habit of sharpening their pencils right as I’m beginning the lesson, which is annoying and hilarious in equal measure. I don’t think they’re doing it maliciously, they just don’t have the foresight to sharpen them at the beginning of class. But dear lord, you should see the pressure with which they jam the pencils into the machine. I swear it’s like that scene in Evil Dead II when Ash cuts off his own hand. I can just hear my little electric pencil sharpener screaming heeeeelp meeeeeeee.

After first period ended, I jumped into an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting. IEPs are for students with disabilities who need specialized instruction. This was my first in-person IEP meeting. I went to one last year, but it was over Zoom and it was like my third day teaching. Ever. I had no idea who the student really was. 

Since it was my first in-person, I didn’t realize how many adults make up a student’s IEP team: teachers, counselors, physical and occupational therapists, the parents, and, in this case, a translator. I can’t imagine how this experience is for a student. I’d be scared as shit, but this particular student has had a life of difficulty and they’re more resilient than I could ever be.

I also showed up to the meeting eating an apple, which turned out to be very bad (to those wondering [i.e. Aaron], it was an envy apple). I knew I didn’t want it as soon as I took the first bite. It was like the apple was becoming applesauce in my hand, just mealy and soft. So, I ended up just holding it, taking tiny little nibbles while watching it turn brown in my hand. I kept thinking, “What is wrong with me? Why did I bring this to this meeting?” I tried to take another bite and a piece fell off onto the floor. Like, goddamnit. I’m sorry universe. I’m sorry for who I am and who I always will be. 

But at the end of the meeting, the mother said that their student speaks very highly of their teachers, and then the mother turned to me and smiled.

I felt pretty happy about my classroom management today. Period three came in just unhinged. Absolutely sugared-up or something. There were kids yelling, singing, yelling and singing, but I was able to calm them down. Sometimes, you can just stand in the front of the room and address each student by name and they’ll settle down. When it happens like that, you kind of feel like a conductor, pointing out each section of the orchestra. 

Dancing Girl especially has been on one recently because we have two new students, brothers, and she’s excited to have two new peers (victims?) that speak her language. And the brothers have kind of fallen under Dancing Girls’s tutelage. I just know it’s only a matter of time before they wise up and realize just how alienating Dancing Girl can be.

I’ve seen this happen a lot with her and it makes me sad, but she just has an uncanny knack for making fast friends, and then repelling them. I imagine these two new brothers will soon tire of her shenanigans. 

Oh, I also wore a Hawaiian shirt today, tucked in. It’s not a bad look if I do say so myself. I got numerous compliments from students, including one girl, who paused to get the words right and then said: “Your outfit is amazing.” 

One of the student tutors from UCSD said my shirt looks like a” release of serotonin.” 

Now that’s a Monday. Take that, Satan. 

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

I was fired up today.

This happens when I’m about to embark on something that I’m not very comfortable teaching. I often use the analogy that teaching is like a performance—a performance that you’re only really about 60% ready for—but on days when I’m trying something new, that percentage drops down to about 30%.

If you’ve ever been in a band, you know that it is those underprepared performances can be the most invigorating. Yes, it’ll probably suck, but sometimes a certain desperate magic happens. And coming from journalism—where deadlines don’t wait for you, where time just bulldozes through all your attempts at perfection—this is where some of your best work can happen. I don’t advocate unpreparedness, but sometimes it’s the wildcard that you, or the students, want/need. 

The reason for all this anxiety was because we analyzed a song today. “You Can Get It If You Really Want It,” by Jimmy Cliff. 

I’ve never tried analyzing a song with the students, which is no different than analyzing poetry, and poetry is just something I’m not very knowledgeable about. It also requires a lot of advanced skills that are even difficult for native English speakers. For kids who don’t even know the alphabet, it’s a huge ask.

But what the hell, right? You never know what students can or can’t do unless you try it. Same goes for the teacher. 

I led off with the three R’s: rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. (Sidenote: It’s fucked up that these tools we use to analyze music/poetry words are some of the strangest-looking words in the English language.)

I gave some background, and showed the students a picture of Jimmy Cliff. I also showed a video that explained the three R’s. The video was meant for very young children, which I warned the students about, and apologized. One thing that sucks about teaching English to teenagers is that so much of the material is aimed at younger kids. Very babyish, and insulting to teens.

So yeah, if anybody out there is reading this and wants to design an English Learner curriculum aimed at 13 to 17-year-olds, please do. I’m sure you would make a lot of money. Well, a lot of money in education dollars, which isn’t a lot of money at all.

The Jimmy Cliff song is beautifully repetitive, so to avoid making the choral read-along too monotonous, I divided each class into three sections and had each section read with me, which added a little competitive element. 

In both classes, the first group to read was unsure, always the quietest, but by the third iteration, the whole class was singing and it was loud. Even for those who didn’t quite understand rhythm, rhyme, and repetition, I think they got a real big kick out of yelling along with me.

We did all this before we even heard the actual song. I then showed them a clip of Jimmy Cliff performing the song on the Jools Holland show. Oh my God, the kids were rapt! I had a few students get up out of their seats, trying to mimic Jimmy Cliff dance moves. In my third period, the kids gave a round of applause once the video ended. And even though both classes ended way before the bell rang, I was like, “That’s it. We’re gonna leave it at that. Let’s end on a high note. You guys can have your phones.”

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

I went to an offsite professional development today, so I wasn’t in the classroom. The program was called Learning How English Works, an all-day workshop. 

Without boring you with the nitty-gritty , the workshop was basically about familiarizing ourselves with the core standards for ELD and getting ideas of how we can implement them in the classroom. 

The majority of the people in attendance were those whose jobs will be cut next year—including me—and the mood was even more sour than our last department get-together. Since then, the school board has announced that there will be layoffs. Before, they were just planning to excess teachers (i.e. move them to another position), but with the L-word looming large, I just know—given my seniority and inexperience—that I’ll likely get a pink slip come April. It’s a huge bummer. 

But until that happens, there’s really nothing I can do except work on my resume. 

After the workshop, a few of us met up at the Yard House at the Mission Valley Mall. This is the second time in two weeks that I’ve been to the Yard House and honestly? I might be a Yard House-head now. I have not had a bad experience at the Yard House. If anyone has a connection there, please let them know that I’d be excited if they wanted to sponsor his newsletter. Probably going to need that extra income soon, amirite?? Haha! 

Ha. Ha.

I think from now until the end of the year, those of us in the Multilingual Education Department will permanently be in “I need a drink” mode. Like, we’re all very positive people, but you can’t escape the feeling that everything is futile. We talked about what we’d miss most about our jobs, what our potential new careers could be, and talked a lot of shit about people in power. It was good for us. If you can’t talk shit about the misery you’re going through, then what is the point of going through misery?

Afterwards, I suggested we all go to Spencer‘s Gifts and treat ourselves to a verbally aggressive coffee mug, but nobody seemed interested.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

My supervisor Karrie observed me today. 

Karrie is a fantastic boss. She’s been so helpful and patient during these probationary years. She’s always willing to come into the classroom to support me and model lessons if I ask. Still, I always get so nervous when it’s observation time.

This observation is part of a teacher development program called E3. E3 asks teachers to focus on areas they want to develop, and sets specific goals on how to dial in those skills. Then, throughout the year, the teacher (me) and the mentor (Karrie) do a series of observations, reflections and assessments. 

My goal for this E3 has been to develop my skills in small group instructions, including methods of scaffolding that assist students’ abilities to comprehend a text, summarize it, and then tell it back to me.

So, I slept like shit the night before because I was so anxious about this observation, but I gotta say: I kinda killed it. 

That’s not to say I was performing or putting on a show, but I didn’t realize how much I’ve improved until today. All the students were able to succeed in the areas I wanted. All the scaffolds I’ve been developing—including front-loaded vocabulary, model reading, choral reading, setting purpose, visuals, sentence frames—have just become second nature.  

At the end of class, after all the kids left, I debriefed with Karrie and the E3 coordinator, Audrey, and both of them were just so complementary about how much I’ve improved. They said they were proud of me, and that was a really good feeling

But, as is often the case in education, those wins were short lived. 

Third period were being a bunch of assholes. They’re all wonderful human beings, but all they want to do is play this fucking game called Free Fire on their phones. It takes them forever to detach, and some will lie to me about putting their phones away just to sneak some gameplay in. The game is sucking in even my best students. 

I also wondered today if we’re far enough into the school year to stop giving a shit about certain behaviors. Every teacher goes into the year with a list of nonnegotiables, or behaviors that aren’t tolerable. This year, I set out to hold steady on the no phones rule, because last year, I eased up on that, and then the classroom became a bad, bad place. There are few things as insulting as trying to teach and you just look out and see everyone’s staring at their phones (playing fucking Free Fire). When you start to slip on your nonnegotiables, it’s like a crack in a dam. It becomes something that’s very hard to remedy unless you want to have an unpleasant, Serious Talk with the class. 

Anyway, I caught like four kids during third period who had snuck their phones, and I felt the apathy creeping in. Do I really care? I think I still do. I’ll just continue asking nicely and offering to put the phones away for the students who seem to have trouble doing so. 

There was also the case of Dancing Girl sleeping throughout the entire third period. Like, just sprawled out on this couch with the assignment draped over her face. A little extra icing on the “fuck you” cake. 

Again, I wondered if I should wake her up, or if I really care? This is also kind of a different situation because when Dancing Girl is awake, she’s a disruption to the class, but when she’s asleep, the class moves more smoothly and more learning happens. As a teacher, what do I do? Even if she’s awake, she probably not going to do the work anyway.

I talked to Mr. P about it after class because he has the same student. He said that Dancing Girl is a special case because she gets no sleep at home. So maybe not let her sleep all the time, but if a kid is so tired they can’t stay awake at school, then forcing them to learn isn’t the best idea.  

As she slept, one of the new kids, the younger of the two brothers, filled out the assignment for her and turned it in. When Dancing Girl woke up, she was like “That assignment is mine, teacher. I did it myself.”

Nobody ever said that Dancing Girl was not funny.

Friday, March 1, 2024

I feel like I’m embarking on a big project. This could be something really cool or an utter disaster. If anything today made it seem like it will be somewhere in the middle.

My goal this year is to get the students making movies—little documentaries about their lives. How does one even go about doing this?

I figured the first step was to teach them the terminology of filmmaking. Just some basic vocabulary like scenes, shots, edits, editing, cinematography. I showed some movie clips to give them examples.

The first clip I showed him was a two-minute clip from Jurassic Park when the T-Rex escapes. I don’t think any of the kids had seen the movie, and they were enthralled. There was one girl in the front row who nearly jumped out of her seat when the goat leg hits the window.

Then we talked about how the scene made us feel. What kind of editing did you notice, fast or slow? What kind of cinematography did it have, light or dark? I even rewound the clip and we counted the number of shots in one minute, which the students really liked doing. 

Then I showed the students the trailer for The Shining. I immediately followed that with the parody trailer for the family-friendly Shining, and we discussed how with editing, you can make two very different movies with the same footage. A lot of kids thought the parody trailer was funny, so, mission accomplished.

We spent the rest of class writing about our favorite movies, and why we like them. I tried to get students to write about some of the filmmaking techniques. Some were successful, but most just wrote things along the lines of “I like it because it makes me feel good.” Oh well. This isn’t really indicative of their English abilities—I just don’t think most kids think about movies in a meta sort of way. When I was student teaching, I asked a class of English speaking 8th graders what their favorite movies were, and many couldn’t even answer that question.

Again, Dancing Girl didn’t do the work, and, again, one of the brothers tried to finish it for her. I brought out the translator and said “Do not finish her work for her. She does not appreciate it and I don’t give her credit anyway.” He set the assignment aside, nodded toward Dancing Girl, and then made universal cuckoo hand motion by twirling his finger near the side of his head. 

Sigh. Alienated another one. Just like I predicted.

It was also a girl’s birthday today. I usually try to have a little treat for kids on their birthdays, like stickers or a bag of chips, but I was fresh out of treats, so I just let her have her phone the entire period, and the look she gave me was like I had just given her a million dollars.

Oh, and when I we were doing the movie assignment in first period, I asked The Cheater what his favorite movie was. His response: “Tony Montana Scarface,” which A) is not surprising at all and B) is what I’m going to call Scarface from now on. 

Tony Montana Scarface.