NEW POST
It's hard to believe I've been so busy and/or tired for the past two months that I have so severely neglected my blog. Although, I think the drastically diminished frequency at which I posted since the beginning of the school year indicates what this job really requires.
Much has happened since my last post. I decided to update now because I am sitting in the lab at school right now, on a Saturday, facilitating lab make-up. So far, there are only two students here and they're being quiet and cooperative. Compared to last time, I had around 50 students who were relatively disruptive. I've found that the best solution for Saturday lab make-up is to run it like a drill sergeant - I think I have that perfected.
STUDENTS THROWING STUDENTS
I had a disturbing incident this week on Thursday in my ninth period. After my students took a quiz, they were given time to work on posters illustrating and explaining cell analogies. However, as this began, a male and female student engaged in a heated verbal exchange. The female student got out of her seat, walked over to the male student and continued to yell in his face. He hit her in the face. They proceeded to hit and push each other back and forth. At this point, I'm on the phone calling for school safety. As I have become a little too well-versed in calling for school safety, I used the 10 code for a fight when I called. The front desk answered when I called and I say "I've got a 52 in 711." A 52 is a dispute; we have plenty of them at Graphics.
When I got off the phone and turned around, I saw the male take the female by the shoulders and throw her against the wall and into the chalkboard. This guy was at least a few years older than her and probably about a foot taller.
When she was thrown into the wall, another student in the room began to verbally defend her at which point the first male went over to him and started hitting his head like a punching bag. The two students who were being beat up quickly left the room just before safety agents arrived.
The student that initiated the physical violence has shown up to my class no more than 5 times the entire semester, so for him to come into the class and alter the dynamic was clearly not a good mix. As far as I am concerned, that student should be arrested and and charged with two counts of assault. I do not understand why this wouldn't happen. If this occurred on the street, this would surely be the case. I doubt he will be returning for the remainder of the semester.
On a lighter note, this is the first physical fight I've had since the last brawl involving a girl having a seizure. Of course there are a few bumps in the road in between, but for the most part, it's been pretty smooth sailing. I have become accustomed to dealing with nonsense.
C GRADE & RATIONING
Our school also received its grade by the city of a C for this past year. While that may sound bad, it is not necessarily horrible. Graphics has made loads of progress in the last five years. However, schools that received C's, D's or F's for three years in a row are dismantled and closed. This is our second year with a C.
Now that our principal is up in arms over this potential closure, we are receiving slightly different instruction from our administrators. At a faculty meeting, our principal gave us some very directed and somewhat ambiguous instructions. "We need to find was to pass our students." This has become a point of contention with teachers. Often teachers will say that our principal simply wants us to pass our students regardless of what they do. And to some degree, I agree with this perception of what is being said. If a student has now shown up for weeks on end, then decides to come back, the suggestion is to prepare a packet of work for him or her to complete so that we can have something on which to base his or her passing grade.
Personally, I think this sends a very poor message to students. Don't do anything, then wait until the last minute so you can pass by not doing much. However, I do not place any blame on my principal, but I do place blame on the systems and policies of the whole education system. My principal is simply doing what he needs to do to keep his school open. It's a sad state of affairs for NYC's education system, but it is a harsh reality.
The most aggravating part is that I see advertisements on the subway commending the NYC Public School System. It's an inflated presentation of progress to the public. Real problems aren't really being solved.
To further complicate matters, we have had over $900,000 in budget cuts. This has manifested itself as a paper shortage. For the remainder of the calendar year, we only have two boxes of paper for the entire science and foreign language department. I guess I shouldn't feel too distraught because other teachers from other schools have it much worse than I. It is difficult to go from a seemingly limitless supply to rations.
All I know at this point is that I have seven more teaching days until my winter break and I cannot wait until then.
Showing posts with label fights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fights. Show all posts
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Fight #2 + Seizure
Yesterday I was having a great day. Many of my students were enjoying the literacy lesson plan about genetic engineering that I had devised for them. I had them list foods they had eaten for the Do Now, then we went through them one by one identifying each food as living at some point, be it wheat in bread, beef in hamburgers, tomatoes in tomato sauce, etc. This was a great segue into a discussion about genetically modified foods. I passed out an article about genetically modified beef. A guided reading addressed different words in the article they did not understand and led into a great Q&A session about genetics, GMOs and their safety. Everything was going smoothly as ever.
Then, as my 9th period rolls around, only 3 students were actually on time. Many of the others were coming from their gym class, which I believe is on another floor in the building, so they have to hike up quite a few flights to get there on time. A few moments later, I had a few more students and most had begun the Do Now activity. One of my most disruptive students popped her head in the door and spoke loudly to some other student. I approached her and instructed her to come in, take her seat and begin the Do Now. She immediately left the door and went back into the hallway.
Moments later I hear someone yelling to get security. After yesterday, my phone had been destroyed. I do not know how as it did not occur in my presence, but it looked like someone took it off the hook and banged it against the wall. The handset was in two pieces. I tried earlier that morning to get someone to fix it to no avail (figures).
I yelled across the hall to another teacher to call 711, our version of 911 in the school. Seconds later, I was yelling at my students to get back into the classroom. They were yelling at me to "help her." My most disruptive student who had earlier popped her head in the door and left was now laying on the floor in the hallway convulsing - yes, having a seizure. I am guessing it was induced by another student who was being physically violent with her, who was supposed to be in my class also. I made sure that they were both marked absent on my attendance sheet. (CYA).
I had my AP, another AP from a different academy in my building, the whole security staff, two other academy coordinators and various teachers all involved. This was surreal and incredibly stressful. I fully expect my principal to have me in his office on Monday.
After the convulsing students was taken to the hospital and the other girl was detained my school safety, I was trying to manage all the highly disturbed students in my classroom. They were all very upset and became combative when I was asking for their cooperation. Two of them began to argue, which I successful tried to de-escalate. Before I knew it, I had School Safety Agents in my room again and they were removed. I did not prompt the removal, it was the safety agents that came in upon their own accord.
The AP from the academy came in and had a talk with the students. It filled pretty much the whole period. I stood their and watched. In last 15 minutes, I salvaged whatever I had left of a lesson. The AP left before the end. I kept my students on task for the next 10 minutes, but in the last five minutes of their last period on a Friday, they began to become more talkative about what happened. To pull them back in at least for the last few minutes, I had them turn over their agendas and on an exit slip write two things about what happened during the earlier incident. I got some interesting responses. "'student a' was slam 'student b's head into the floor."
I just can't believe all day, everything goes SO well, then in the last 47 minutes, it could not have been any crazier. Good thing there are metal detectors or I'm sure someone would be killed by now. What a fucking fiasco.
Then, as my 9th period rolls around, only 3 students were actually on time. Many of the others were coming from their gym class, which I believe is on another floor in the building, so they have to hike up quite a few flights to get there on time. A few moments later, I had a few more students and most had begun the Do Now activity. One of my most disruptive students popped her head in the door and spoke loudly to some other student. I approached her and instructed her to come in, take her seat and begin the Do Now. She immediately left the door and went back into the hallway.
Moments later I hear someone yelling to get security. After yesterday, my phone had been destroyed. I do not know how as it did not occur in my presence, but it looked like someone took it off the hook and banged it against the wall. The handset was in two pieces. I tried earlier that morning to get someone to fix it to no avail (figures).
I yelled across the hall to another teacher to call 711, our version of 911 in the school. Seconds later, I was yelling at my students to get back into the classroom. They were yelling at me to "help her." My most disruptive student who had earlier popped her head in the door and left was now laying on the floor in the hallway convulsing - yes, having a seizure. I am guessing it was induced by another student who was being physically violent with her, who was supposed to be in my class also. I made sure that they were both marked absent on my attendance sheet. (CYA).
I had my AP, another AP from a different academy in my building, the whole security staff, two other academy coordinators and various teachers all involved. This was surreal and incredibly stressful. I fully expect my principal to have me in his office on Monday.
After the convulsing students was taken to the hospital and the other girl was detained my school safety, I was trying to manage all the highly disturbed students in my classroom. They were all very upset and became combative when I was asking for their cooperation. Two of them began to argue, which I successful tried to de-escalate. Before I knew it, I had School Safety Agents in my room again and they were removed. I did not prompt the removal, it was the safety agents that came in upon their own accord.
The AP from the academy came in and had a talk with the students. It filled pretty much the whole period. I stood their and watched. In last 15 minutes, I salvaged whatever I had left of a lesson. The AP left before the end. I kept my students on task for the next 10 minutes, but in the last five minutes of their last period on a Friday, they began to become more talkative about what happened. To pull them back in at least for the last few minutes, I had them turn over their agendas and on an exit slip write two things about what happened during the earlier incident. I got some interesting responses. "'student a' was slam 'student b's head into the floor."
I just can't believe all day, everything goes SO well, then in the last 47 minutes, it could not have been any crazier. Good thing there are metal detectors or I'm sure someone would be killed by now. What a fucking fiasco.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Fight #1
I don't begin teaching until 4th period (there are nine in a day). Today, I had my lesson plan on bar graphs and line graphs prepared with some guided modeling of the activity and independent practice. The activity was going very well in my first class of the day. Everyone was paying attention, taking good notes, and getting their work done accurately and efficiently.
Just before the last ten minutes of class, a student asked me to use the restroom. He returned about 5 minutes later. When he walked in, he said something to another student in the class like, "she's mine (fine?)" or something to that effect. The student to whom he was speaking stood up calmly then took about a step and a half forward. At this point, he took one of the desks and flipped it a few feet in the air and it fell to the ground, at which point he charged the student that returned from the bathroom.
They commenced beating the living shit out each other. A few desks were pushed around as the two wrestled and punched each other on the floor. The two fighting are the only two sophomores in the class and the rest are freshmen. The other students mostly stood back and watched in awe with maybe one or two egging them on.
The desk flip was my cue to pick up the phone and call School Safety (ext 711, kinda like 911 teacher-style). After I did that, I partially stepped into the hall and yelled for school safety several times. Within 30 seconds I had the school safety agent assigned to the floor in my room trying to separate them. The middle-aged African American female school safety officer was unable to dislodge the two boys. She radioed for assistance. Another 30 seconds, I had two more, then eight, then 12 school safety agents (I think most in the building) in my room. I instructed all the other students to stand back. At some point, two deans were also in the room with I think maybe another teacher or two.
One students was removed and taken in the elevator with about 4 safety agents, the rest of which remained in my room. The second student was removed by school safety moments later. A dean, with whom I've worked before, politely informed me he would need me to write out the situation. I told him I'd be free 7th period and walked back into my classroom.
I firmly instructed the rest of the class to take their seats and to give me their worksheets (with 2 minutes of class to spare). The bell rang and I instructed them not to leave yet. I told them to hand in their worksheets if they had not done so already, to complete their exit slips and put the desks back in their original position. I replaced the desk that had been launched.
I gathered my things and headed to my next period.
Expecting fights and being the person of authority in one are two VERY different things. Luckily I've dealt with high-intensity situations before, so my gut immediate response it usually appropriate. My adrenaline was definitely through the roof though.
As strange and as twisted it may sound, managing a situation like that is MUCH easier than managing a class that is moderately disruptive to whole period. The problem is so big, it progresses out of my jurisdiction at which point I just pick up the phone and it dissipates in a few minutes. It's a default response where I am no longer responsible. Managing less intense classroom management problems is a far more daunting challenge. That one is persistent and falls mostly on me.
I've never seen a fist fight before. I guess this is a first. At least, now I know I can handle it.
Just before the last ten minutes of class, a student asked me to use the restroom. He returned about 5 minutes later. When he walked in, he said something to another student in the class like, "she's mine (fine?)" or something to that effect. The student to whom he was speaking stood up calmly then took about a step and a half forward. At this point, he took one of the desks and flipped it a few feet in the air and it fell to the ground, at which point he charged the student that returned from the bathroom.
They commenced beating the living shit out each other. A few desks were pushed around as the two wrestled and punched each other on the floor. The two fighting are the only two sophomores in the class and the rest are freshmen. The other students mostly stood back and watched in awe with maybe one or two egging them on.
The desk flip was my cue to pick up the phone and call School Safety (ext 711, kinda like 911 teacher-style). After I did that, I partially stepped into the hall and yelled for school safety several times. Within 30 seconds I had the school safety agent assigned to the floor in my room trying to separate them. The middle-aged African American female school safety officer was unable to dislodge the two boys. She radioed for assistance. Another 30 seconds, I had two more, then eight, then 12 school safety agents (I think most in the building) in my room. I instructed all the other students to stand back. At some point, two deans were also in the room with I think maybe another teacher or two.
One students was removed and taken in the elevator with about 4 safety agents, the rest of which remained in my room. The second student was removed by school safety moments later. A dean, with whom I've worked before, politely informed me he would need me to write out the situation. I told him I'd be free 7th period and walked back into my classroom.
I firmly instructed the rest of the class to take their seats and to give me their worksheets (with 2 minutes of class to spare). The bell rang and I instructed them not to leave yet. I told them to hand in their worksheets if they had not done so already, to complete their exit slips and put the desks back in their original position. I replaced the desk that had been launched.
I gathered my things and headed to my next period.
Expecting fights and being the person of authority in one are two VERY different things. Luckily I've dealt with high-intensity situations before, so my gut immediate response it usually appropriate. My adrenaline was definitely through the roof though.
As strange and as twisted it may sound, managing a situation like that is MUCH easier than managing a class that is moderately disruptive to whole period. The problem is so big, it progresses out of my jurisdiction at which point I just pick up the phone and it dissipates in a few minutes. It's a default response where I am no longer responsible. Managing less intense classroom management problems is a far more daunting challenge. That one is persistent and falls mostly on me.
I've never seen a fist fight before. I guess this is a first. At least, now I know I can handle it.
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