Are the kids alright?
It's interesting having a new educational lens with which to experience life. Once a graduate student....how long will I still act like one? I feel like my education has just begun.
Being a substitute teacher seemed like a hardship when I was jumping through the hoops to land this $12/hour job. And if you think students can be tough on teachers just try being a sub. I am a non-person, a place holder. Well, the job itself isn't so bad but when I first started the process it was (and still can be) quite trying. First off, the sub system is on an automatic dialing system. Since I was a new sub, I was at the bottom of the pile. I didn't get a call for the first week. Then, when my phone starting ringing with assignments, it did so at 5:30 in the morning! Yup, subs get calls from 6 at night until 10pm and again from 5 in the morning until 9am. I woke up in a frantic frenzy and one time I couldn't even operate the key pad and get my sub number dialed in before the system gave up on me.
After a few days, I started getting called in the evening. Even better, I started getting requests. News apparently travels fast when you are a trust worthy sub that can read and follow a lesson plan. But I have seen things. I have seen more of our educational system than I did in the six years I was a teacher. I am now officially appalled by the lack of importance we give education in this country. I am a believer in government funding for education, not who can pay the most taxes, passes the most levies or can train their students to jump through the multiple choice obstacle course that is our standardized testing.
I worked in a school struggling to keep subs because student behavior was so poor. The teachers seemed to be doing the best they could but they were dealt unfair odds with the lot of students assigned and few to no aides. This happened to be a school situated in a low income neighborhood. Special needs students went to class with everyone else, which is good; but there were no aides to assist, which is bad. For me that seems black and white after I was put in a room with 22 first graders including one special ed student. Most of them couldn't be bothered to notice my existence, paid me and my Old McDonald song no mind. Then one of the special needs student tackled another student and a wrestling match broke out and I was at a loss. Of course I pulled one kid off the other but I taught nothing and could barely even manage the class. This was not an entirely bad group of kids. Quite the contrary, there were many well-behaved students. There always are but it doesn't matter if the class is 75% well behaved when the other 25% is demanding all of your efforts. In three different classes I had students cry and claim that they hated the school and wished they could go back to their old school. I am assuming this is because things were much more orderly and they actually got to be a person. Now, I am not saying I know exactly how to solve this but a little more funding for education and teacher training and maybe some more teachers would not hurt.
Another eye opening experience was subbing at a lock down high school where students had either been kicked out of school, were drop outs returning to school, or had recently left the juvenile prison. They were not allowed to go to the bathroom without an escort. No student could be in the hallway unattended. That wasn't so bad considering the crowd but what was appalling to me were the lessons being learned, or not. I was subbing Spanish. My first class was the extreme students that were each on their own plan that they had to get through in order to graduate. Basically, they were being pushed through the system. The students received credits for everything they finished until they had enough to pass the class. I was helping a Spanish II student with his work when I realized he didn't know ANY Spanish. I am talking NOTHING. So how did he get to the end of Spanish II without being able to recognize any of the words much less conjugate a verb? The next class I taught was Spanish I where students who had been in jail kicked out of school for one reason or another were asked to create a menu in Spanish and to be sure they included the prices in pesos, used three colors or more, and made it pretty. Does any of this seem useful to you? It didn't to me. It seemed absurd.
So my question is why can't we see what is right in front of us that and teach to that? We are teaching people not subjects. Maybe we should decide what will best serve our students instead of making them symbolically pass a Spanish class or create a Crayola art project. Spanish is subject to state standards even though there is no standardized testing. Also, each school determines how many years of a foreign language is required to graduate independently of the state. Some universities require a certain level of a foreign language be achieved in order to be accepted. But what about the kids? Wouldn't these kids be better off learning some workplace Spanish than studying a fake ad for personal grooming equipment and answering questions about how often they cut their hair and who does it? This is not the teacher's fault. She probably didn't know what else to do and followed the curriculum handed to her. The kids are tough, too; so I imagine she doesn't have to much time or wits left at the end of the day to reflect. It also depends on experience. I had the benefit of experience and fresh eyes. But how many other students are we putting through a senseless ritual to meet a requirement?
Some may call my views radical and others impossible. Yes, there are examples of schools doing a good job, great even. I taught in some really nice schools. But I have to say, they are still missing the mark. I've seen a lot of good intentions in the form of policy, mission statements and even a semester long freshman seminar that is intended to help shape the culture of the school but if the implementation is lacking, it doesn't make too much of a difference. We can all make things look pretty on the outside but it's the content that really matters.
To be continued...I hope!
Being a substitute teacher seemed like a hardship when I was jumping through the hoops to land this $12/hour job. And if you think students can be tough on teachers just try being a sub. I am a non-person, a place holder. Well, the job itself isn't so bad but when I first started the process it was (and still can be) quite trying. First off, the sub system is on an automatic dialing system. Since I was a new sub, I was at the bottom of the pile. I didn't get a call for the first week. Then, when my phone starting ringing with assignments, it did so at 5:30 in the morning! Yup, subs get calls from 6 at night until 10pm and again from 5 in the morning until 9am. I woke up in a frantic frenzy and one time I couldn't even operate the key pad and get my sub number dialed in before the system gave up on me.
After a few days, I started getting called in the evening. Even better, I started getting requests. News apparently travels fast when you are a trust worthy sub that can read and follow a lesson plan. But I have seen things. I have seen more of our educational system than I did in the six years I was a teacher. I am now officially appalled by the lack of importance we give education in this country. I am a believer in government funding for education, not who can pay the most taxes, passes the most levies or can train their students to jump through the multiple choice obstacle course that is our standardized testing.
I worked in a school struggling to keep subs because student behavior was so poor. The teachers seemed to be doing the best they could but they were dealt unfair odds with the lot of students assigned and few to no aides. This happened to be a school situated in a low income neighborhood. Special needs students went to class with everyone else, which is good; but there were no aides to assist, which is bad. For me that seems black and white after I was put in a room with 22 first graders including one special ed student. Most of them couldn't be bothered to notice my existence, paid me and my Old McDonald song no mind. Then one of the special needs student tackled another student and a wrestling match broke out and I was at a loss. Of course I pulled one kid off the other but I taught nothing and could barely even manage the class. This was not an entirely bad group of kids. Quite the contrary, there were many well-behaved students. There always are but it doesn't matter if the class is 75% well behaved when the other 25% is demanding all of your efforts. In three different classes I had students cry and claim that they hated the school and wished they could go back to their old school. I am assuming this is because things were much more orderly and they actually got to be a person. Now, I am not saying I know exactly how to solve this but a little more funding for education and teacher training and maybe some more teachers would not hurt.
Another eye opening experience was subbing at a lock down high school where students had either been kicked out of school, were drop outs returning to school, or had recently left the juvenile prison. They were not allowed to go to the bathroom without an escort. No student could be in the hallway unattended. That wasn't so bad considering the crowd but what was appalling to me were the lessons being learned, or not. I was subbing Spanish. My first class was the extreme students that were each on their own plan that they had to get through in order to graduate. Basically, they were being pushed through the system. The students received credits for everything they finished until they had enough to pass the class. I was helping a Spanish II student with his work when I realized he didn't know ANY Spanish. I am talking NOTHING. So how did he get to the end of Spanish II without being able to recognize any of the words much less conjugate a verb? The next class I taught was Spanish I where students who had been in jail kicked out of school for one reason or another were asked to create a menu in Spanish and to be sure they included the prices in pesos, used three colors or more, and made it pretty. Does any of this seem useful to you? It didn't to me. It seemed absurd.
So my question is why can't we see what is right in front of us that and teach to that? We are teaching people not subjects. Maybe we should decide what will best serve our students instead of making them symbolically pass a Spanish class or create a Crayola art project. Spanish is subject to state standards even though there is no standardized testing. Also, each school determines how many years of a foreign language is required to graduate independently of the state. Some universities require a certain level of a foreign language be achieved in order to be accepted. But what about the kids? Wouldn't these kids be better off learning some workplace Spanish than studying a fake ad for personal grooming equipment and answering questions about how often they cut their hair and who does it? This is not the teacher's fault. She probably didn't know what else to do and followed the curriculum handed to her. The kids are tough, too; so I imagine she doesn't have to much time or wits left at the end of the day to reflect. It also depends on experience. I had the benefit of experience and fresh eyes. But how many other students are we putting through a senseless ritual to meet a requirement?
Some may call my views radical and others impossible. Yes, there are examples of schools doing a good job, great even. I taught in some really nice schools. But I have to say, they are still missing the mark. I've seen a lot of good intentions in the form of policy, mission statements and even a semester long freshman seminar that is intended to help shape the culture of the school but if the implementation is lacking, it doesn't make too much of a difference. We can all make things look pretty on the outside but it's the content that really matters.
To be continued...I hope!
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