Below are the 15 most recent journal entries recorded in Al Gerba's LiveJournal:

Monday, October 31st, 2005
8:46 pm	Is it too much to ask that students come to class equipped with the bare minimum for learnaing? I mean, a pencil and some paper aren't that much to haul around, now... And nobody give me the "they might not be able to afford it," defense. I'm talking about several kids who have on $150-a-pair shoes, $2 for pencils and notebooks isn't too much, considering that. Grr. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 25th, 2005
7:29 pm	Update... We had testing last week. State-mandated, standardized math tests in my room. I noticed a few things about this: one, my room looks naked without any posters (obviously, the helpful-friendly "PEMDAS" and "How to solve a word problem" posters had to go), two, students are sometimes idiots... One student came in late, asking "do I have to take this test?" Yes, you do. Please start on page 8 of your test book, the calculator section, answer the questions up here on the answer sheet. Here's a calculator, ruler, protractor, and #2 pencil. Good luck. 5 minutes later, same student -- answering questions in the wrong part of the answer sheet. No, no, put them under the "use a calculator" heading, since you're doing the "use a calculator" section. 10 minutes later, "Mr. Gerba... What do you do when you're done?" Why, sit quietly and wait for everyone to catch up.... er, you do know you've got a ton of blanks, right? "Well, yeah, there were only 30 questions..." A sinking feeling, then -- there were 30 questions on the non-calculator section. Yes, that's right. Our little genius managed to completely mung up the directions, twice. Along with that 40-watt bulb in an 80-watt socket, there were a number of students complaining that the test was "too hard, we would never learn this stuff in class..." This despite the fact that it's a test aimed at 8th graders, written at a roughly 6th grade level. Between myself and my proctor, we think the student was being deliberately dense (the directions were about as clear as could be, although I don't like the organization of the test -- the non-calculator section should be second in the book, since it was administered second), mainly because of the student's resistance to taking the test. One problem on the test stuck out -- we'll probably going to go to the state board about it, since it's (IMO) either blatantly wrong, or far too subtle -- "What is most, 8/9, .888, 88.8%, or 8/11?" Now, technically, 8/9 is expanded as .88889 (due to rounding), while .888 and 88.8% are identical, but that's pretty subtle, much more subtle than the target audience of the test. I project a large number of people answering A, B, or C, with much fewer answering D. However, of the ABC answers, I think it'll be roughly 1/3 for each answer. Tigger's brother dropped out. His mom came over to the school today to complain about something (I think it's about Tigger's being banned from our after-school events, due to assaulting a student at one), and said she'd be home schooling him. Personally, I don't think I'd trust the woman to grow zucchini, much less home school a 10th grade boy who's probably working on a 4th grade level... (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 12th, 2005
8:55 pm	In-service day I had the day off today, sort of. There was an in-service seminar, "Creating Great Classrooms." It amazes me the fundamentally wrong things that some people must do in their classes -- we were taught, today, to create a "positive emotional climate" where students can "take academic risks." Like anyone would deliberately create a negative classroom, where failure is accompanied by beatings, or something. I might talk about failing students who do no work, but I can guarantee that someone who does the bare minimum, who tries, in my classes... they will pass with at least a 70. The problem, and I hate to pass it off to someone else (but I will), lies in the earlier years. Studies indicate that kids "drop out" of school somewhere between 4th and 6th grade, and I'd wager that a good chunk of the students who drop out then are identifiable earlier (even as far back as kindergarten). A good chunk of the kids who are failing in my classes are the at-risk group for dropping out; they began failing a long, long time before they got into Mr. Gerba's pre-algebra. But I still celebrate them. Yes, even the screwups. The girl who incessantly sings to try and distract the class because she's scared to admit that she doesn't understand the material. The boy with ADHD who drums his hands on the desk, walls, and his neighbor's heads, just before he spaces out completely. The proto-gang member who can calculate exponents in his head. Because, you know what, they are learning something. Even if that something is "adults are not going to let us screw up without consequences," they will leave my class knowing something they did not before. Even if they'll come back next year for the math. I just felt like I had to say that, having read my previous couple entries -- I sound completely negative, and that's not the case. I wake up in the morning, and say to myself "I have the privilege of going to work today." I've never done that; I won't claim to not looking forward to the weekend, but I also look forward to Monday. Screwups and all. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 4th, 2005
7:40 pm	Why I love my principal One thing I've not posted yet about is the fact that my district has not yet paid me. What's that, you ask? Not paid? That's bad, right? Exactly. I gave them the miss on the August paycheck (my district pays on the last workday of the month) -- new employee, there's a lot fo stuff to miss. However, missing the September one sucked royally. So, I went to my bookkeeper (who is in charge of disbursing the paychecks), and the conversation was essentially: "D., why have I not gotten paid?" "Mr. Gerba, I don't know. Let's call S. at the district to find out." Cue hold music for 10 minutes. S. tells us that I didn't yet get into the system. Whafuck? I've been working since the middle of August and I'm not in the system?! Time for a run to the district office (fortunately, only 5 minutes from our school).... "S., do you want me to sue the district?" "What?" "Well, seeing as you're in violation of your own district policies and [state law regarding school payrolls -- cited chapter and verse], and [state law regarding general pay of workers -- also cited]..." "Let me get with the head of finance." So the head of finance comes out, and it turns out that we literally can't cut a check on Friday. Not that they don't want to, but that there is 1) no paper checkbook -- we're all electronic now, and 2) it's closeout for the month, a process that can't be interrupted and restarted, apparently. I was willing to argue point 2. Alas, I had to go back to school as it was, and didn't have time to make my point like I wanted to (spearing the head of finance through the left eye with the letter opener that was on his desk, labeled as an award for customer service). So, yesterday, my principal sends me to talk to the bookkeeper. D. still can't help me, but she assures me that there is a check waiting for me on Wednesday. Today, the principal cuts out of her lunch early to meet with me. She playfully verbally bitch-slapped me (along the lines of "Silly Mr. Gerba -- there's a problem in my building, I want to know about it. Especially if it means that one of my staff isn't getting paid." [whap]) The upshot? If there's no check waiting for me on Wednesday, the school will be cutting me a check out of their general fund (monies used for things like office supplies, extra textbooks, that sort of thing) until one is available. And, I get to come in late Wednesday in order to stop by the finance office to see if there is a check waiting for me (and if there is, to go to the bank to deposit it). She agreed with one thing -- although I'm enjoying the job, making a difference in children's lives, feeling self-actualized doesn't feed me. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 28th, 2005
8:49 pm	venting Lots of things. Roo is gone. He's dropped out. Sad, but it makes my life much easier. Had an interesting experience; student A came to me and said, confidentially, that student B was pregnant. This would explain B's near-constant nausea and moodiness. I wonder what to do now? I mean, it's second-hand information, but at the same time, student B is in a hard position. I'm thinking of emailing the school social worker -- even though the information is second-hand, he should know. Tuesday was the last day of the quarter. I had several students who got their grades raised... to a 501 (in fairness, I did raise several students up from 68 and 69 to 70; our school rates a 69 or below as a failure). Amazingly enough, since my warm-up for the day was "discuss your grade with Mr. Gerba," a number of students seemed surprised; they didn't seem to realize that not doing the work and not studying would result in them failing. One of my students complained about her grade (a 57), saying that "Mr. Jetty never failed me..." (Mr. Jetty is a much more experienced teacher whom I have a pretty good relationship with). So I asked Mr. Jetty about this student's grade last year -- turns out that she's improving, as she left his class with a 55. In the same genre, one of my male students complained that "You're failing me, I'm only failing this class, that's not fair. I'm not even failing Mrs. Valentine's[remedial reading] class!" Of course, Mrs. Valentine constantly complains that this particular student (whom she refers to as "butthead") is constantly unprepared, tardy, and generally being a fuckup (which he is in my class too). He's pulling almost the same grade in our classes -- she was more generous, and gave everyone below a 55 a 55. Me, I'm a dick, and only raised his 28 to a 50. I didn't have the heart to ask what his reading score really was. On the plus side, I had several students who pulled solid B's (an 82 and an 84) who got notes saying "[student] has been putting in a lot of work this quarter and it shows. i hope that [student] can keep up their great effort." These are kids who have never passed a math class at the high school level. I'm no Jaime Escalante, but it's a good sign. All in all, a good week. Except for one thing -- Friday is payday. I'm still not "in the system," as our bookkeeper says. If I don't get a paycheck Friday, I'm not sure I'm showing up for work on Monday. But at least I know that I've been making a difference. The only problem is, self-actualization doesn't help feed Al, Betty, Ada, Isaac, and Euclid. 1I don't want these kids to slaughter themselves totally because they fucked up the first quarter of the semester. You can pull up a 50 to make an overall 70, or even an 80 (50+3*90=320, or an overall 80. Really, pulling a 90 ain't that hard in my class. 50+2*77+76=280, or an overall 70. If you only pull a 77 in my class, you're putting in the bare minimum of work.). I hate inflating grades, but at the same time, honestly, the kids who pull below a 50 on the first quarter probably won't do much better after, but at least I can say that I did literally everything I could. (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 21st, 2005
11:36 pm	Tigger update, mark 2 Tigger got himself suspended for a week and a day. What happened last Friday at the football game wasn't a fight, it was a full-on assault. Tigger and another boy had "had words," as it were, and Tigger came up to him at the game, apparently offering peace, in the form of an outstretched right hand, and the words "are we cool?" When the other boy said "Yeah, we're cool," and shook Tigger's hand, Tigger sucker-punched him. Any semblance of respect I have for the boy is gone now. If you're going to get in a fight, that's one thing, do it with honor at least, don't come in offering peace and then punch the other person in the nose. That's just cowardice. I hope he drops out (he's a 16-year-old freshman, so he can...), or gets reassigned to the alternative school. He doesn't need to be in a school with 1,000 other kids -- too many distractions, too many possibilities for getting into trouble. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
10:51 pm	On IEP's, race, and porn... A large number of my students have IEP's1. Most people would view this as a good thing, and I did, up until I met the kids that had the IEP's. Of 6 IEP's in my classes, 4 are not (in my opinion) warranted -- and the other 2 kids are both pulling 85 % grades (the 4 other ones are pulling lower than 50%'s). 1 is for a kid that's functionally illiterate -- their IEP consists of "separate testing facility, read-aloud test, allow student to mark on their test papers, allow alternate assessments, and extended time on tests/major assignments." Remember, the kid is functionally illiterate, they're in a reading class, but we're giving them no incentive to learn to read (and the reading teacher -- someone who deals with ED2 kids all the time -- describes this student as "lazyass"). Can't read the test? No problem, we'll give you extra time and read it aloud to you. Can't write an essay? Oh, that's OK, we'll let you do something else instead, so those nasty words that you don't understand don't make you feel bad. Because, you know, we wouldn't dare say that you have to learn anything as basic as how to read... The other 3 have behavioral issues, mostly due to a diagnosis of ADHD3. The footnote explains my opinion of ADHD -- I feel it's overdiagnosed -- and in these 3 cases, the kids use the diagnosis as an excuse. Didn't bring your homework? "Oh, Mr. Gerba, it's my ADHD..." Yes, the blame-game catchall is something they learn early. Same as the race card. I'm white. A significant minority of my students (30-40%) are black. When a student misbehaves, white, asian, black, or Martian, I correct them. No, it's not all right for you to be doing your Earth science homework in pre-algebra. The white kids, though they may ignore me, don't say anything. But, dare I suggest that a black student is doing something they shouldn't, and I'm a racist. Because, you know, since I'm white, I oppress black people, and don't want them to get an education and succeed in society. No, that's very nearly a quote. "You don't want me learnin', you just wanna boss me around. What is you, some dang KKK member?" That buzzing noise you hear is Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, George Washington Carver, and W. E. B. Dubois spinning in their graves. Oh, speaking of kids trying to sneak in homework from other classes, I had a kid sitting in the back of the class reading porn today. No, really, Penthouse. Aside from his appallingly bad taste in skin magazines (I've always figured that Penthouse was there for the people who couldn't stomach the high-brow articles and interview in Playboy, but didn't want their dirty magazines as dirty as Hustler. Me, I say, if you're going to read smut, read smut, go for the lowbrow stuff, if you're going to read articles, pick up something with good articles. Penthouse has neither good smut, nor good articles, so it's not worth my time.), he didn't even try to hide it. I could read the cover from across the room. Write up? You bet. But even better was throwing it in the trash. And then telling the kid to spit his gum out (how hard is it to remember, "no gum in Mr. Gerba's classroom?") into the trash can, on top of it. Because, you know, nobody likes a sticky-with-gum skin magazine. 1An IEP is an Individualized Education Plan, in theory it's supposed to help mainstream kids with minor educational disabilities, like ADHD, by telling teachers "this kid has a problem, you need to let them have a bit more leeway due to it." 2Educational Disability -- I realize that I put the wrong acronym in here, thanks to jsbowden pointing it out, ED is Emotionally Disturbed (we say BED in our district, B standing for "Behaviorally and"). Too many acronyms make Al... something, something. 3ADHD is overdiagnosed, by far. It's too easy for parents to look at kids misbehaving for purely social reasons -- not getting enough attention, so seeking attention any way they can get it, even negatively, for example -- and find a doctor willing to give the kid a diagnosis of ADHD, and, oh, some Adderall, that'll help. There are kids out there with legitimate ADHD issues (I can think of 3 I know off the top of my head), but the percentage of kids who truly have a problem with ADHD, as opposed to simply not having been taught decent behavior, is much smaller than the percentage of kids who are diagnosed with it. (17 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 17th, 2005
7:28 am	Tigger update Just a quick update on Tigger, because I've got a metric assload of things to do this weekend (yay, spending time with Betty, Ada, Isaac, and Euclid!). He's been chronically absent from my class, yet showed up to the football game last night (yay, we won!). There was... an altercation. Someone pushed Tigger, Tigger pushed back, the cops told them to break it up, Tigger told the cop to go to hell, and the cop told Tigger to go up against the wall to spread 'em. Tigger wound up being led off in handcuffs. A really cynical part of me said "there's a sight that we'll see time and again. Tigger with wrist jewelery." Talking with one of the sheriffs that was working security, we agreed that Tigger (and Roo, too) would be one of their "regular customers." Why am I not surprised... (Comment on this)
Saturday, September 10th, 2005
8:44 am	Another week gone. Not much interesting going on this week, at least not anything amusing. Interesting, that I can offer... Progress reports went out on Friday. I had probably 10 students go "How can I score a 40%?" My answer was always a variation on "well, I've seen no homework, and you scored a 50 on the test. The only thing saving you from having a lower score is that you're in class and breathing. Try shutting the fuck up and paying attention, and perhaps your grade will be better!" One student even asked me "How can you give me such poor grades?" "Simple. I take my pen, open my gradebook, and.... no, but seriously, you give yourself the grade. I just record it." An experiment with my Algebra 1A kids (with the approval of more experienced teachers): Before the test, I gave them the answers. No, literally. I reviewed the material by taking the actual questions off of the test and answering them on the board. I picked up the test, and said "I'm going to review the questions that are on the test." I had 1 100%. 3 90-95%'s. A significant number of students failed. One got a 25%. To continue the fun, I had my pre-algebra kids hand in their homework on Friday. After I reviewed it. Every question. On the board. I had announced "I'll be taking up the homework, but let me go over it with you first." There are 27 kids in that class. I've got 13 papers. I'm wondering what, short of simply handing out grades, I can do for these kids. The phrase "cattle prod" comes to mind, but I'm sure the Board of Education wouldn't approve of that sort of "motivational method." Found out how to use our computer system to see what school a kid comes to us from. In my "bad class," over 10% of my students come from the local alternative school. Read: juvie hall. In that vein, I think 2 of them may be going back soon, perhaps even 3, although the third has said to me that they wish to remain in regular school. In their case, perhaps it'll work, since that kid's got a pretty fucked-up home life (the BED1 teacher told me that in that family, Mom abandoned 4 kids to Dad, and Dad's coping skills are near-nil, so it's not surprising that the kids rebel against male authority figures), but seems to genuinely want to be a normal student. And that is the week that was. Another session of molding young skulls full of mush, or at least (as I have now-famously analogized), "offering up a buffet of knowledge and a plate, only to have the students be unable to use buffet tongs." 1 Behaviorally and Emotionally Disturbed. These are the kids who have fucked-up home lives (ranging from "living in my brother's car" to "Dad takes me to bed on the weekends" -- examples only, I don't know the specifics of my students' experiences), or who will probably be in and out of psychiatric institutes through their lives (I'm thinking of one girl in particular, who's hypersexual nature has made her a near celebrity amongst the staff and students -- last year, she was caught in the staff bathroom having sex with her 22-year-old boyfriend. She was 14 at the time.). This is distinct from SLD -- Specific Learning Disorder -- kids with dyslexia, or cognitive impairments. (23 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 6th, 2005
11:03 pm	So, on Friday, I gave my first round of tests. 1A: Did OK, not great, but I only had 2 or 3 failures. SAT prep: Take a guess. 1 failure by my standards, that's it. Pre-algebra: 70% of the class failed. I can hear you now, "but, Mr. Gerba, was the test too hard?" In a word, no. See, our pre-algebra book has section reviews at the end of each unit. This test was on unit 1 (in 8 parts). My questions were pulled directly from the section review. Verbatim. I assigned the section review for homework. I went over the homework immediately before giving the test. Literally, the answers to the test were on the whiteboard 5 minutes before I handed out papers. Now, I had 4 kids fail because they couldn't follow testing rules (keeping their eyes on their own paper, not talking, keeping books and notebooks under their desks). One failed doubly -- she was talking, and refused to relinquish her paper. All the talkers but her had a chance to write lines for partial credit ("I will not talk during tests."). Stupid hurts in my class. What hurts more, though, is that some of the students would have done better to write lines than take the test. I had to put a nonzero "floor" on my test to make it fair -- if you did the test, you beat the line-writers, even if you got a theoretical 0. Oh. My ESOL kids outscored the mean. They still failed, but they beat the mean. That makes me simultaneously happy and sad -- they did well, but the kids who theoretically understand what I'm saying didn't. Sigh. I had one kid come to me today, pronouncing that he was going to drop out at age 16, and (his words) "Get an apartment, a car, and a job." I'm going to try to convince him that no employer in their right mind is going to hire a 16-year old high school dropout into a job that pays well enough to support an independent lifestyle. I mean, if you can't complete 4 years of school, what hope does an employer have that you'll be a decent employee? Hell, I saw our county's "help wanted" in the newspaper. Every job had "High school graduate" as a minimum (some "college graduate," some "college graduate with experience in ________", but there were none that didn't list some kind of diploma). That includes garbageman. Without a diploma, you're underqualified to pick up trash. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 1st, 2005
6:51 pm	Tigger and Roo and Prin'cess, oh my! More pre-algebra fun... Today, five minutes into class, Tigger pipes up: "Hey, I need to go to the bathroom." "Tigger, I didn't see a hand, and heard neither 'Mr. Gerba' nor 'Sir'." "I'ont care, I need to go to the bathroom." "No." Three minutes later: "Hey, I need to go to the bathroom." "Nope. Hasn't changed." This process repeats for 20 minutes, upon which time, Tigger takes it upon himself to get up, walk out of the classroom, and go to the bathroom (presumably). When he comes back, the door's closed and locked (I keep my door locked, and open it for passing periods only). He knocks. "Where's your pass?" "What? I just went to the bathroom!" "Great, now go get a tardy pass." So now, one trip to the bathroom works out to be the same as skipping class for Tigger. Why? Because he decided to be an inconsiderate prick. To add insult to injury, at the end of class, I had 2 kids ask to use the bathroom, using protocol (raise hand, ask politely, "Please, Mr. Gerba, can I use the restroom?"). I made them wait 5 minutes, and then they went. Tigger wasn't happy. Let's all say it together now.... aww, poor Tigger. After this fiasco, I was advised by my administrator to call Tigger's parents. Mom got on the phone, I explained the above, and she said, "Oh. So Tigger was essentially being a dick?" "Well, ma'am, that's how you put it. He was being disruptive, rude, and skipped class. So not in so many words, yes." "OK. He'll be catching hell for it -- I picked him up at school, he didn't mention a word." I think Tigger is going to be catching a beating. ( Prin'cess ) As a note, I understand that all this might sound, well, misanthropic. Don't misunderstand me, I love teaching. I love it when a kid goes "Oh, now I get it (and you're the reason why, Mr. Gerba)." Wouldn't trade it for the world. But, damn, some of these kids spend more effort and energy not learning than they would if they just broke down to learn it. As my principal said to an assembly of the class of 2007, "This is the last time it'll be free. If you want any education after you're 18, you've got to pay for it. Take advantage of that!" I'm happy to help kids take advantage of that fact. It's just the 10% that want to be pains in the asses stick in my mind. OK, there's precious little Roo in this update -- I did talk to him after class, though -- "Look, Roo, I can see you don't like math. It bores you, whatever. But if you want to graduate, you need this course. You'll be in it until you get it right. Why not get it right the first time, and not have to do it again?" /obRoo (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 31st, 2005
9:06 pm	Worked with one of the Spanish teachers (a former ESOL teacher) on adjustments to make for the new Mexican students. We agreed, for them, learning the language is the important thing -- if they can learn the math, so much the better. Pre-algebra was pretty fun today. My two jokers (Tigger and Roo, since they're always bouncing out of their seats) weren't there, so all I had was Miss-I'm-not-singing-it's-flow (the answer is: singing, flow, chanting, whatever the hell it is, it's not going on in my class). I also let them know that they'd be having a test on Friday, and what Mr. Gerba's rules for tests are: Tests are given at the end of the period; this way, you've got a hard-and-fast time to be done. I collect them as you walk out the door, and not before. Talking is verboten, unless it's a library voice to me -- and you've called me over for a question. If you talk, I take your paper and it goes in the trash. Papers do not get retrieved from the trash. Trashed papers are 0's. Cheating in any other form (crib notes, whatever) is the same as talking, plus it's an honor code violation, so you get reported to the administrators. Anyone want to take bets as to the number of papers that get 0's due to being in the trash? Remember, I've got 25 kids in that class now.... As for my other classes, I had fun with algebra 1A -- one of my students claimed to have left her cell phone in another classroom, and wanted to go get it. That is, she wanted to go get it, five minutes after the bell. Note that school policy is "no cell phones during the school day." So she shouldn't have had it on her person in the first place. Sorry, honey. A lack of ability to keep track of your stuff (that you're not supposed to have) on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. Sit your ass down, shut the hell up, and next time keep your damn squackbox in your locker, or better yet, at home. Why? Because I'll confiscate it if I see it. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, August 30th, 2005
6:45 pm	Interesting... so, today, I got 2 new students in Pre-Algebra. One is from Veracruz. The other, from Acupulco. Neither speaks English. I do speak some Spanish. Enough to muddle through a meal, or ordering an airplane ticket, or... well, normal tourist stuff. I don't have the vocabulary for math. Exponent? Factor? Don't ask me. I also lack ESOL training (English for Speakers of Other Languages). Mind you, this is in pre-algebra, where I've got the most discipline problems to begin with, Fun, fun, fun! (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 29th, 2005
9:00 pm	I think I might have to hand out some zeroes for homework tonight. You see, on Day 1, I let the students know explicitly, the way to do homework was: Restate the problem (paraphrase if needed). Solve, showing your work. Have an answer easily visible (box, underline, something). Of the 44 homeworks I've collected (from a total of 49 students, so you know there's 3 0's right there...), under 10 have accomplished all three steps. Most have step 3 (although some of the answers are "I don't know"), some (probably around 15) step 2, and almost nobody has done step 1. Think I should hand 'em back and tell the students to do it right? Nah. Tomorrow's lesson just got an addition. "Repeating problems, paraphrasing, and showing work." I'll take some of the problems from today, and do just that -- restate and solve showing work. The sad thing? "Show your work and solution" in this case is something like "35*8=280." It's not rocket science... (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 26th, 2005
10:18 pm	First post I am pseudonymanously known as Al Gerba -- that's Mr. Gerba to the students in my classes. This is my first year teaching, though I've got some experience that leads me to believe that I've got some hope of faring better than the "normal" first-year. Beyond that, I live with Mrs. Gerba (I call her Betty, and she calls me Al), and two little ones, Ada and Isaac. Oh, and a dog, Euclid. I work at a relatively well-off school -- by which I mean "has a bimodal distribution of kids on the economic spectrum; lots poor, lots wealthy, not many middle-class" -- in the American South, where I teach 2 math classes and a test prep class. We have a "4x4" schedule, so students have 4 classes a day, 90 minutes per class, through mid-January, then new classes 2nd semester. Me, I've got planning first period (yay, coffee to get me going!), then a section of algebra 1A (for the kids who aren't ready to deal with all of algebra 1 in a semester), then SAT/ACT prep (my bright spot in the day, kids who are taking an elective and want to be there!), and finally pre-algebra (for the kids who aren't bright enough, motivated enough, or in school often enough to survive "real" algebra!). Our school schedule has been screwey this first week -- usually it's first period, then 15 minutes of homeroom (for attendance purposes, and announcements, mostly), then the rest of the day, with 4 lunch periods spread throughout third period -- first lunch is the first half hour of a 2 hour block, and so on, so it's possible to leave a class, go to lunch, and come back to the same class if you've got second or third lunch -- and finally fourth. This week, though, it's been homeroom, classes, lunch (where the schedule's been screwed to hell and back - new computerized system isn't saving time, imagine that!), and theoretically finish up. Gems from the first couple of days (both from pre-algebra): From a black student with a very "urban" attitude1, on the first day: "Mr. Gerba, when are we going to use this stuff [algebra]?" "Well, what are you planning to do?" "What?" (more like "whuuuut?") "After school, what do you want to do? In life, I mean." "I want to be a pimp." "OK. If you're going to run a small business, you need to know accounting, which is based on algebra." The student sat there, stunned. I could see the wheels clicking through his brain (ever so slowly!): "I just gave him a smartass answer.... and he turned it around..." On the plus side, no problems to report with this boy on day 2, and in fact he seems reasonably facile with arithmetic. From a white student, dressed preppily, but kind of sloppy in his mannerisms - he interrupts an explanation of factoring numbers with: "Can I use the bathroom, bub?" "Pardon me?" "Can I use the bathroom, bub?" "I don't think 'bub' is teaching right now." "No, that's you. I can't remember your name." [points to the board, where my name is prominent]. "I'm Mr. Gerba. It's also on the syllabus you signed and turned in to me. And on your schedule. But I assure you, there is no 'bub' on the faculty, so don't go looking for him, because he won't let you go to the bathroom either2." As a note, on the first day, I let them know that if they can't remember my name, "sir" will suffice nicely. From algebra: "For your assignment this weekend, I'd like you to do page 12, numbers 6-12 even, 13-21 odd, and 26 through 28." "Is you serious?" (This came from several students, mostly black males, but several black females and one or two white males) "And, I'd like you to write a conjugation chart for the infinitive 'to be.'" "What?" ("Whuuuuuttt?") "In my class, we don't abuse each other, ourselves, or our irregular verbs." ( An open letter to the gangbangers in my classes: ) Mr. Gerba. 1read: gang poseur 2Part of my class rules: take care of personal business like bathroom, water, locker, etc, in between classes. Or hold it for 90 minutes. They're big kids, they can do it. No need for Pampers even! (33 Comments |Comment on this)