Teaching journal 3/4 - 3/8

Mr. Bradford: 1; technology: 0

Monday, March 4, 2024 

I chickened out on my lesson today.

Last Friday, I started talking about film in my classes. My goal this year is to get the students into editing videos on a platform. I’ve spent a lot of time in class talking about sequences and narratives, so video editing just seems like a fun way to apply those concepts. I mean, that’s kind of how I learned to write; I was a filmmaker before I was a writer. 

So I spent the whole weekend excited to get students editing. But at 5 a.m. this morning, I woke up and had the thought: “What if the technology doesn’t work?”

It’s always a big gamble to plan a lesson around technology, especially technology that you don’t really know. Teachers are encouraged to use as much technology as we can. In every interview I had when applying for teaching jobs, they asked me how I incorporate technology in the classroom. I get it. Wave of the future. But, really, technology is the bane of the teacher. 

Without going on a rant about all the useless teaching apps that popped up during Covid, my biggest issue is that kids treat their Chromebooks like shit. They literally punch the screens, break the input slots, and never remember to charge them. Before I even start the lesson, there’s a handful of students who don’t have working computers and must share with someone else. 

But today, I needed to know if they could log into Adobe Express. Teachers can access it through a district site, but I wasn’t sure about students. If students couldn’t, there goes my day, and I’d be standing in front of the students for an hour, flailing like an fool.

So I jumped out of bed and quickly found a worksheet on the past tense of the verb “to be” as in” “I was”, “you were”, “they were”, etc.

As soon as the first kid got into class today, I asked if I could borrow their computer. I checked to see whether they had access to Adobe, which they did. Game on for tomorrow.

Still, though, that last minute change in plans threw my whole day off. It was kind of similar to the feeling of waking up and thinking it’s Friday when it’s really Thursday. 

I did, however, complete my mandatory reporter training. Mandatory reporter training is something that San Diego Unified teachers must do every year. It’s an online video course that trains you how to respond if you encounter or suspect abuse. We’re supposed to do this at the beginning of the year; mine was 160 days overdue.

Mandatory reporter training is very unpleasant to sit through, which is mostly why I put it off so long (also, procrastination). I’m not the only teacher who puts it off, either. There are other teachers who dread doing it because it’s so triggering. 

So today during my prep, I put the training on with the volume turned down while I chatted with Mr. P. At one point, I turned up the volume just in time for the narrator to talk about “spanking a child”. This got us on the topic of corporal punishment in schools. Did you know that corporal punishment school is still legal in a lot of states? Just based on the colors of this map, I bet you can guess which states still allow corporal punishment.

Source: wikipedia

I also have this student in my class I’m gonna call Hello Kitty Girl. I have a lot of students who are obsessed with Hello Kitty but this girl’s fandom is on another level. Hello Kitty Girl is not the best student but her verbal communication has improved so much since the beginning of the year, which I think is partly due to how much she likes talking to me about Hello Kitty. 

Today, she showed me pictures of her bedroom, and it was just shelves and shelves stacked with Hello Kitty paraphernalia.

I think it’s cool when students have super specific interests, because the teenage mindset is so... I don’t know. Weirdly conformist? Generally, they all like the same stuff. I think I could go into any classroom and talk about soccer or videogames and have everybody’s attention. I’m sure more students have interests that they don’t share, but they’re at a stage in life where it’s not cool to stand out. I remember that about 9th and 10th grade. Whenever students are unabashedly into their interests, I like to encourage it. It’s almost like a breath of fresh air.

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Kind of a roller-coaster of a day.

Began both periods both first and third period with a small reading group. I talk a lot of shit about The Cheater, but he actually does well in small groups. And his little buddy isn’t in the group, so he’s somewhat respectful. 

But third period’s reading group was a disaster. I mistakenly put the two new brothers and Dancing Girl together, plus another girl who’s been a challenge this whole year. She’s very angry and resentful of being in the United States, so her engagement with school is understandably very poor. But I thought maybe since all these students spoke the same language, they could lift each other up. Communal motivation. 

But nobody could focus. They were all scribbling on each other, not paying attention, not following along in their books. Five minutes before our time was over, I just got up and said “We’re finished,” and then sat at the front of the room and stared off into the middle distance until a student asked, “Mr. Bradford, are you sad?”

After small groups, we did one last whole-class karaoke practice because tomorrow is the karaoke quiz. If I haven’t mentioned it yet, I had the students learn The Cure’s “Friday I’m In Love”. 

I feel like I’ve done more class practices with this song than I ever had before, and a lot of students told me today that the song was easy. I actually heard one of the girls singing it to herself as she left class. Have you ever really lived if you haven’t heard a non-native English speaker softly humming The Cure?

I spent the rest of class getting the kids onto Adobe Express. In both classes, it went a lot smoother than I thought it was going to be. Adobe comes with a lot of pre-populated media that you can mess around with, so I just sort of led the kids through the process of doing that, even though some of them took off and did their own thing. At the end of class, I asked if they liked the program, and they said yes. 

Today gave me hope about this movie project that I’ve been envisioning since the beginning of the year.

I had a student not show up today, and this is a girl with perfect attendance. I asked her friend where she was, and the friend said the student had moved away. This is one of the harder parts of teaching ELD. These kids have so little stability in their lives, and their families are kind of at the mercy of whatever agency is advocating for them. Plus, San Diego is becoming so expensive that it’s harder for refugees to live here.

This news was sad to hear because the student in question was working really hard. Her friends kind of don’t give a shit about school, but she was separating herself from them during class in order to focus. So yeah, her having to leave for whatever reason—that just sucks.

In second period math, one of the students told me that Mr. P—who they had during the previous period—had been frustrated with them. 

“Because talking talking talking,” the student said.

I played ignorant. I mean, I knew exactly why Mr. P would be frustrated, and with whom—but I brought out the translator and said something along the lines of “In English, we have a saying called ‘waking up on the wrong side of the bed.’ Perhaps that’s what happened?” [For the record, Mr. P, I’m sorry for throwing you under the bus. I’m sure the kids were annoying as shit]. 

Then one of the boys said, “In Mexico we have something similar: despierta con el pie izquierdo.”

Waking up with a left foot. I love that. 

At the end of school, we had a Social Justice Academy meeting, and we talked a lot about the prospect of issuing a school-wide ban on phones next year. Not really a ban —just a policy of taking away phones at the beginning of each class.

The ELD department already does this, and I’ve already talked about how beneficial it has been in my classroom, but so many teachers are hesitant. There was also a student representative at the meeting who, of course, was not in favor. Her justification was that the school has so much control over their lives already, and their phone is the one thing they can control.

It was an astute, well-articulated argument, but I could just feel my inner Boomer rising up. There is so much research that has gone into phones' effect on learning, and it kind of blows my mind that anyone can learn anything anymore. These things that we hold in our pockets are designed to suck you in, keep you scrolling, addict you until you forget about what’s happening around you. This research says that even if you put your phone away in your backpack, your brain is still focused on it. True release only comes from the phone being locked away. 

Source: https://www.dataquest.io/blog/phone-proximity-effect/

If you’re a parent and you’re reading this, please, for the love of god, try to keep the texts to your children to a minimum. I know that—especially with high schoolers—there’s scheduling issues that need to be resolved throughout the day (e.g. who’s taking care of a younger sibling or who’s picking someone up from school). But please give teachers the common courtesy of treating school like a professional space of learning. I’ve had a few students are constantly in communication with their parents during class and I’m just like what the fuck?

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Karaoke day today!

I love karaoke days because it’s the students who are on display instead of me. This may be sadistic, but there’s a little bit of catharsis in seeing kids sweat. 

But I have noticed that some of the students who used to be shy have fallen into the groove. They understand that the stakes are pretty low—at least in terms of performance—and I’m not going to be mean. Still, some students still groan when I call their names.

The way I grade them is straightforward. The students have three options—they can read at regular speed for the full four points. I also create a slowed-down version that they can read for three points. Or they have the option to just read the lyrics off a paper for two points.

I was so impressed with how students pushed themselves this time around. Even those with lower proficiency aim for those full four points. One kid in particular has just not kept up with his classmates’ progress, but he shot his shot and asked for regular speed. He mumbled through a lot of it, but nailed the ending words of each line, which tells me knows the concept of rhymes—something we’ve been studying. I gave him the full points. 

One girl in first period memorized the whole song and sang it with the same inflection as Robert Smith. It was fucking awesome.

The Cheater and his friend both showed up tardy, each holding, like, a frappe from Starbucks. “Oh, if it isn’t the coffee brothers,” I said.

Mr. P and I were talking about The Cheater the other day and, Mr. P was like, “He’s actually just the biggest dork,” which is absolutely correct. Just a little wannabe badass. I wish I could go back to my high school and see the kids who I considered bullies or badasses with adult eyes. I imagine they would all look pathetic.

Speaking of pathetic, I sprayed myself with hot sauce while eating a fish taco. My clothes/dignity is not coming back from this. 

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Not a lot happened today. We finished up karaoke in both classes. 

I have this new student from Vietnam and she is just so funny. She just has this energy and outgoingness that’s indicative of someone who’s a fast learner. She was the last to go karaoke today and the part where Robert Smith sings, “Friday, I’m in love”, the student extended her arms and sang “I’m in loooooove!” Made my goddamn day.

Also today, Miss E said that she had seen Hello Kitty Girl at after-school tutoring on Tuesday. A lot of the students who stay for tutoring are getting help with math, but Hello Kitty Girl was practicing for the karaoke quiz. I did not know this when I tested Hello Kitty Girl yesterday, but I do remember being so impressed with her performance. The revelation that she cared enough to go to tutoring was really cool to learn.

I’m having a good time locking away the phones. Before I would just shut the closet doors, but throughout the period, students would sneak them when my back was turned or helping out another student. So I started locking the doors, and it’s so fun to see the kids try, find it locked, and then slink away and shame and defeat.

[Evil laugh]

Friday, March 8, 2024

Very fun day today. 

A few months back, I was walking into school on a Friday and I ran into Mr. M in the parking lot. “Happy Friday,” I said (because I’m that guy now), and Mr. M responded with something along the lines of “The minute you show up on Friday, you’re pretty much done with the day.” I now think about that every Friday. 

I try to pick my most fun and engaging activities on Friday because this is my day, too. Students shouldn’t be the only people who get excited for Fridays. 

Since we’ve been studying the past tense form of “to be”, I began each class by having students answer in their notebooks the following two questions: “Where were you last night at 7 p.m.?” and “What were you doing?”

Once the students were finished writing, I became Detective Bradford. I have this rain jacket emblazoned with FBI, so I busted that out and put on sunglasses. I set a chair in the front of the room, turned a bright interrogation spotlight on it, and then asked for volunteers. 

I knew that this would be a hard sell, so before school I bought a huge bag of Hershey bars and said anyone who volunteers gets two candy bars.

Teachers more experienced than me will tell you that bribing kids doesn’t work, or it’s not good for their learning, or something along those lines. I can’t remember the exact reason, just that it’s inadvisable. And I don’t doubt that.

But I don’t see bribes/treats as reward for being smart or knowing the answer—I see it more as an investment in the classroom environment. If kids are having fun, enjoying themselves, and maybe getting food or candy or stickers while doing that, they’ll associate your classroom as a welcome and friendly place. 

So I donned the FBI jacket, put on my sunglasses and acted like a strict FBI agent. “Where were you last night?!” I yelled. The kids in first period are generally more quiet and reluctant to share, but as soon as I showed the candy bars, a whole bunch of students volunteered. 

In third—the livelier of the two classes—students were wooing as I put on the costume. They were stoked. And as soon as I took out the candy, kids were rushing up the front of the class for their turn in the hot seat. 

At one point while I was interrogating one student, another student in the back of the class stood up and yelled “It was me, Mr. Bradford. I killed a guy!” Absolutely amazing.

I also want to add that I did consider the impact of posing as a law-enforcement figure in front of these students. I never want to promote any aspect of the carceral or prison system, no matter how peripheral. I’m sure a lot of these kids will have unpleasant interactions with law-enforcement if they stay in the U.S. (if they haven’t already) just based on the color of their skin, but I think interrogation tropes are universal and cinematic and stereotypical. 

For the rest of the period, we practiced more video editing. This time I had filmed nine quick shots of me leaving the classroom, walking to the vending machines, and buying a soda. I uploaded the clips to Google classroom and made students download them and then arrange them in a correct order.

I knew that students could access Adobe Express, but could they download clips from one source, and upload them into another? Could their sad little Chromebooks even handle a download? That was the task today. 

I pretty much had to go around and show each student how to download the clips and re-upload them into Adobe. But after that, the kids figured it out. They all seemed to have a good time putting the clips in order. Another success in video editing. When technology doesn’t make you want rip your heart out, that’s a good day.

Oh, finally, I saw this textbook in Mr. P’s class. It’s the most cursed thing I’ve ever seen. Since I had to see it, so do you.