March 2024
Friday March 1
“Just give it to her, man!” Danny is advising Rogelio to go ahead and hand over the phone I’ve demanded after catching him using it when he shouldn’t. Danny’s the one I hoped would warm up to me after I helped his sister fill out online lunch forms. I do think it helped, and I also think Danny’s realizing that because he’s sort of smart, it’s less boring to do something in class than to do nothing. He’s in a stage I call “try-curious”.
Monday March 4 — Teacher Workday
A school in California is requesting Jason’s records! I can count on one hand the number of student records requests following the departure of a newcomer CHS has gotten in 10 years. Usually the student’s name just languishes on the roster for weeks or months until it’s eventually dropped. It’s very depressing. But I’m so excited for Jason because he’s a great student who I imagine will keep growing at his new school. When Jason enrolled in October, Raquel noticed that his mother signed with her hands as she spoke to him. That triggered an audiology assessment, and Jason was equipped with an assistive hearing device and a cool mic necklace that his teachers got to wear while he was in our classrooms. Our registrar says she’ll be sure to alert the requesting school to his 504 plan.
Tuesday March 5
I’m about to set a countdown timer for independent work. “How much time do you need?” I ask. “Five minutes?” “No, ten!” reply most of the students. This is expected. Someone says, “One hundred!” which is a bit bold. Then Danny says, “Three minutes!” I tell him I’m impressed with his underbid but he doesn’t hear me. He’s busy writing. I should’ve told him to pace himself with this studiousness because by the end of the day he’s in a shoving match with Norberto. He’ll spend the next day in detention. Try-curious is such an awkward phase.
Wednesday March 6
My classroom routine has also reached an awkward phase. The direct instruction I gave the first couple weeks focused on the use of the online program. We moved through lessons and notes together. Then I let them have a week all on their own and I had no idea some would zoom so far ahead. Now there’s no direct content instruction I can give the entire class unless I find a way to skip some ahead or detour the speedsters. Or I could institute a daily warmup that’s not too taxing, maybe with a grammar focus. I need some way to unify the group and get kids talking more in English. Training them away from jumping right into computer work at the start of class will take longer than I’d prefer, like growing out a weird haircut.
Thursday March 7
Vanesa has started dating a gringo, which means he’s started showing up in my classroom at lunchtime. Today it is determined that he needs to learn salsa, so a new friend jumps up to teach him. And Vanesa documents.
Friday March 8
“Do you want to take Intermediate Chorus?” I’m helping Dayner fill out his course request sheet for next year. I remember pushing him to take chorus in January. He’d been skeptical, but he’d agreed because the other elective options were academically beyond him. I don’t expect him to want to take it again, but I ask just to be sure and he replies, “Yes! More chorus!”
Monday March 10 — Teacher Workday
The upside of blocking work email notifications on my phone: True disconnect and recharge over the weekend. The downside: I show up to a training that has been canceled because I didn’t check my email.
Still worth it.
Tuesday March 11
Zahra’s not drinking coffee today because she’s fasting. I notice she’s not wearing makeup either. I wonder whether the makeup-free day is a coincidence or part of her observance, a way to put maximum focus on spirituality.
Wednesday March 12
Remember my struggles with ‘marico’ last year with the Venezuelans? That cohort is in mainstream classes now, which limits my exposure to their favorite word. My new word nemesis is verga, which is favored by many Guatemalan boys. It’s pretty strong, similar to the f-word, and literally it means “dick”. When I translate in my head what the kids say it’s kind of funny: “These headphones don’t work! What dick?!” “You stole my pencil! Go to the dick!” Similar to my f-word policy, for my own sanity I don’t react when I hear kids say it in the hallways. But if the word enters the classroom, the utterer gets to step out and back in for a language restart.
Thursday March 13
Everyone’s present today and no one can handle it. Not me, not the kids, not my classroom seating (Seriously, when and how did I LOSE a chair?) The kids are accustomed to an artificially low class size (remember I run a coworking space) and the increase in bodies throws them off. Three students wind up in in-school suspension by third period for fighting. I wonder if this problem ever happens at WeWork. I imagine a day where the online scheduler breaks down and all the employees show up at once. Are there fisticuffs? Does someone have to go sit in reception until they’re invited to rejoin the coworking environment?
Friday March 15
I’ve got the beginnings of a warm-up routine implemented: As a class we make a list of words we associate with the Bing photo of the day. Then the students come up with 3 sentences using whichever form of “to be” I’ve indicated for the day. The kids are into it but I know it’ll get old soon, so I need to alternate weeks with something else.
Monday March 18
Usually I try to avoid yelling SPEAK! SPEAK! across the room at an English Learner. This was not my vision for the community-building warm ups. Let’s set the scene: Alan was sharing what he did over the weekend, which included going to church. The hard “ch’’ sound takes practice for many Spanish speakers learning English. Their instinct is to pronounce it like “sh”. So when I hear Alan say, “shursh” I coach him in the correct pronunciation. His attempts to copy me cause classmate Francis to call out, “You sound drunk!” At that point my head swivels and my eyes go a little crazy because making fun of a classmate is the red line that cannot be crossed. Now I’m addressing Francis, “YOU say it in front of the class! Go ahead!” Unsurprisingly, Francis does not want to say it, so I settle for changing his seat far from the kid he was trying to impress with the comment. My response might not have been the best handling of the situation, but ignoring disrespect is not an option when the willingness of students to take language risks is on the line.
Tuesday March 19
Here’s a teacher side hustle I hadn’t heard of before: training a large language model. My mentee beginning teacher tells me she gets paid well to read and submit written analysis of AI-generated prompt responses. I’m happy she has a gig that’ll keep her teaching because she’s great at it. Of course I’m also saddened by the reminder that side hustling is pretty much requisite for new teachers, a fact that is repeated often during public comment at the School Board meeting later this evening. Wake NCAE (our union that can’t strike or bargain) delivers a petition asking for an increase in local supplement among other things. They tell the Board that working multiple jobs will burn all the teachers out. But maybe if my mentee is good enough at training this model, AI will replace all the teachers anyway.
Wednesday March 20
Explaining spirit week theme days is really hard. Tomorrow is “Anything but a Backpack Day”. Students are supposed to bring their stuff in a suitcase or shopping bag or some zany thing. After class two girls hang back to ask what kind of penalty there will be for bringing a backpack tomorrow.
Thursday March 21
Jorge tries to ghost us, but Gloria reaches out to his sponsor — his sister — to get the story. They’ve moved one town over and Jorge does not want to start all over at a new school. So much information to share! Firstly, he can transfer his credits and still graduate next year! Secondly, there might be a way to get him transportation to continue at Cary. A third option is completing his remaining credits online. Raquel spends time explaining all the options to Jorge and his sister, but in the end he’s not interested in any of it. Jorge has been here barely a full calendar year, but showed so much determination that he stayed off my radar of kids on the verge of dropping out. There will be no records requests this time. It hurts.
Friday March 22
Javier is new today from Venezuela. He speaks so much English that Matt and I assume he’d attended a bilingual school, but no. He credits online gaming. Well, I’m glad to know at least one person will be practicing their English next week over Spring Break.
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