the shirt
today was something along the lines of 50s/60s/70s day. i didn't really plan ahead, but i was pretty sure i could find something whenever i woke up and would realize i'm already 5 mins late. sure enough - i just grabbed a pair of baggy courduroys, a "the who" tshirt, and an adidas running suit jacket from just prior to the 1976 olympics.

the students actually were like..."yo - you're wearing something loose. that's what i'm talking about. you're my boy today." etc. the funny thing is that this is more what i'd wear if i had a choice (and didn't care about professionalism). they liked the white patent leather airwalks, but not the shoelaces from early 80s. (around 1984 we sent a bunch of upc symbols from rice chex cereal boxes in exchange for shoelaces with little images of candy and things. once pair resurfaces about 6 years ago, and i kept it.)
- posted by archimedes @ 10/30/2003 12:56:00 AM : Comment

 
weak spirit
this week is crazy. end of six weeks (fitting in tests in all subjects), spirit week, setting up for the assembly, and...i don't have my planning period. i've been covering the students who are not being tested. tomorrow i'm proctoring one of the tests.

digital camera was nice to use. maybe i'll post some doctored pics sometime so you can laugh at us, but i doubt it. after school i worked some more on the sound system/video projection. the ibook is fun. i connected the ibook to the pa amp and played some coltrane. sounded decent however the center channel was quite noticeably louder than the other four. (this of course is because it has twice the amps running through it.) the teacher providing the beats (and other judge) came down to check it out and provided a cd with tracks. when i put it in i soon noticed something sounding odd. i took off the cover of the house speaker - joys of speaker rot. despite falling apart, it still sounded usable to the two of us. i may bring some speakers, but i'm not planning on it. i think i need to minimize the amount of personal items so that the needs are obvious and can be met.

i got the video projector hooked up and working. itunes little slideshow is easy though i'd like to be able to set up titles and the like. (i've been making images with text and importing them. let me know if you have a better solution.) the stupid thing doesn't have a trapezoidal control. it's quite necessary when you're projecting up onto a screen on a stage. there are a couple others around school. i'd asked one teacher (the most technologically savvy one) what was the best projector in the school. she didn't tell me; she just told me that i could use the one in the media center. i asked again if it was the best - she told me it was the one available to me. later i was talking to the sg advisor. she told me i should talk to ms. savvy since she had the newest/best projector.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/28/2003 10:47:00 PM : Comment

 
spirit week
spirit week is upon us.

despite the predictions, pajama day went pretty smoothly. one student even wore more than normal (still not much, but more than normal and definitely more than was predicted in the teachers' meeting).

there's an assembly friday. the finalists in poetry and rap will be allowed to perform. i'm one of the judges for the rap category. this all sounded good, but it seemed like much had not been decided. i was wondering who was in charge of setting up for the assembly. are those rapping going to be provided beats? will there be a microphone? who's to make sure there is one and that it works? questions of this sort keep running through my mind. (blame my union programming board days.)

i had already discussed with several teachers projecting photos of folks from throughout the week as everyone filled in and waited for the assembly to start. this seemed to be well-received. i was told there were several digital cameras in the school. the advisor for sga (who's officially planning the spirit week), told me that she'd be taking pictures. i figured that part was cool. i checked and found that there was indeed a screen above the stage and that there are video projectors in the school.

today, i wanted to found out more about who was setting up, but instead of being nosy apparently i wanted to be helpful...or real nosy. i check with the wonderful office secretary. (if you are not on good terms with your secretary, you're an idiot.) i asked if there were speakers, amps, mics, etc. since this is the first year that the school has been in the building (it's a very old building, but these folks just moved in this year after another school moved elsewhere), no one there really knows where things are. i went back to my room to work while she worked her magic. she called me down and presented me with a small cardboard box. it included an amp for a pa about the size of a shoebox and a mic. it was a start.

around the stage area i found an old house speaker with an 8" woofer. it wasn't looking too good; it didn't look like it ever looked good. i also found the base to a mic stand and a wire from the ceiling attached to a box with a jack labeled "intercom output." i'm still not sure why it's there. did people connect the intercom into a pa system?

first thing was to see if the components i had actually worked. i figured out the shoebox and used an old plug as speaker wire. i was guessing it was an eight ohm speaker and used that setting on the shoebox. i plug everything up and once turned on...i have sound. i'm pleasantly surprised.

one speaker and one mic isn't going to suffice. i return to the office (of course) and inquire about any other speakers. i hold up the manual to a nice pa speaker that i found in the provided box. there were none seen that look like the one on the manual. alas. she does tell me that they have a boombox. i investigate.

the boombox is one of those bookshelf speaker systems. pretty standard and pretty cheap. but there were now two more decently sized speakers. i think they were 6" woofers. these actually said they were rated at six ohms. info is good.

she expected me to take the minisystem, but i didn't see the purpose. (it didn't seem to have an auxilary output.) she also gave me two little speakers designed as satellites for the bookshelf system. (yes, it's one of those systems.) the satellites are also six ohms.

i sit down and try to figure out how i want to wire them. i know the total resistance needs to be roughly 4, 8, or 16 as those are the only options on the shoebox amp. i eventually deside to organize them across the stage as follows:
[satellite] [bookshelf] [house speaker] [bookshelf] [satellite]

i wire the satelite bookshelf combos in parallel and then them in series with the house speaker. assuming it was 8 ohms, then the total ohms would be 14. i hoped this was close enough to 16.

i go to try out my diagram and quickly realize i don't have enough wire (or electrical cords to butcher). i figured it couldn't hurt to see if they had any wire. office secretary rocks it. she like...i think i do. something told me not to throw it out. soon i have a coil of wire (though it's so thin it's like thread.)

back to the lab again, i get to work. i strip and twist. soon they're all lined up and wired up. i've added a surge protector just in case as well. i turn everything on. nothing blows up. i slowly turn it up and do a test...test... nothing. crap. turn it up a little more. hmm...i keep wondering what i forgot or screwed up. then i realized the mic was turned off. i turn it on and heard the click over the speakers. good sign.

i test it some more and i determine that one cannot hear much on stage, but those little satellites work great as monitor speakers. the setup gets a rather surprising amount of sound for only being 35 watts. it fills the - admittedly empty - auditorium rather easily. it needs another mic, and i need to figure out how to connect the music source to the amp, but i'm quite surprised that it worked. (i'm also surprised i remembered physics well enough to calculate resistance.)

next step is figuring out the video projector/photo slideshow. i asked for the pictures from today so i could go ahead and start working on how i wanted to show them. i was given them on the camera's removable media -- a floppy disk. all 12 photos fit on the disk, with room to spare. each photo is 40k. i told her to increase the resoution if possible. tomorrow i may borrow a digital camera and use that as well. projecting low res doesn't sound too wise. at least i'll be able to indoctrinate the kids as to the wonders of iphoto.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/27/2003 11:05:00 PM : Comment

 
itRocks
well, i guess checking macintouch, macosrumors, thinksecret, apple stores (online and physical), etc. finally had their effect. i'm now a proud owner of a 12" iBook G4. i picked it up at an apple store nearby. it had rather brisk sales, and i had to practically beg for someone to take my money. i also picked up an airport extreme card and a video adapter. i'm experiencing some disconcerting weirdness when i shut it when it's in sleep mode (keeps trying to restart and acts like it's trying to eject a disk).

i next want to get more ram (apple prices are ridiculous) and a 802.11g base station. the airport base is quite cool, but quite pricey, so i'll likely get a linksys or something. i enjoy lying in bed and typing a blog entry. too cool.


- posted by archimedes @ 10/26/2003 10:24:00 PM : Comment

 
obligatory picture/post
i wasn't intending to post, but then i realized i had a lot of work to do. for those that don't waste their time reading slashdot, osnews, or mac rumor sites...apple updated their ibook line yesterday. they now all have g4s. i'm quite enamored. i've been wanting an apple and a laptop for a long time and i've been wanting to play around with panther. (not a tiger.) (our last mac was a powerbook 190c. ignore the bit about able to be upgraded to a powerpc. it came with a sticker that said "powerpc ready." there were just no upgrades made for it.)

education pricing saves $100. i actually would have ordered it last night, but i had to find out who's the school's purchasing agent (and put in their email address...and we don't have email addresses.)

i'm now trying to decide between the 12 and the 14 in. the 12 should be lighter, cheaper, more portable, and have a longer lasting battery. the 14 should be faster and have a bigger screen. i feel like i should be engaged after this purchase. it's still one month's salary right?

warning signs replaced count: 6 over the last two days. i think i might move it to the inside of the door. as the principal says "remember what country you're in." (this is in reference to the school being an alternative school.)

actual teaching updates:
one class is steadily improving. i've been trying to think of what i can do to improve students confidence and interest. today i reviewed graphing horizontal and vertical lines yet one more day. those that tried, caught on pretty well. i then gave out a warmup with 5 questions. only three were related to horizontal/vertical lines. i let them do the others for extra credit if they wanted to. i know it's just a warmup and won't count that much, but i swear the kids were beaming when i went around and recorded their work. a couple ended up with 167s. i don't think they get grades like that regularly. i then showed how if they get a zero, it'd be just like getting two 84s. (many of them have zeros.) i told them to make sure they don't get any more zeros. they were all engaged (well except for two who haven't done anything in weeks.)

another class has stalled at zero. i've not gotten anything done in about two weeks. (i have overhead transparencies that show what i've done - the students haven't done anything.) i have instituted weekly "notebook quizzes" on fridays. if they just write down what i've put on the board, they'd get 100s (or more if i give a bonus). i've not had to worry about the grades being "too good." it's just good if they pass. every day i stress that this could very well be on the quiz on friday so it should be in the notebook (which i provided). it's kinda aggravating. i hope tomorrow's quiz goes well.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/24/2003 12:04:00 AM : Comment

 
warning sign
i replaced the sign outside the door four times today. i've printed a few extra as well. i'm pretty sure i know who took a few of them. luckily those polypropylene sheets were only like 3 cents a piece. (i also made a couple for fellow teachers.)

if i get tired of this game, i guess i'll just post it on the inside of the door through the window.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/21/2003 11:47:00 PM : Comment

 
not news to me
i've been telling people to buy books online from amazon in the uk for several years now. i'm pleased to see others are taking advantage of this nonsense. sorry, tim. it's on the nytimes.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/20/2003 11:49:00 PM : Comment

 
i'm failing
"I'm not going to do any work in this class; i'm failing it." this was uttered by a student who i talked to individually after class in the hall. she should be one of my better students. nevermind that the reason she's not doing well is because she didn't do many assignments.

i swear the smallest things can mean the most. i checked my box at the end of day and low and behold in it was an electric pencil sharpener and 24 pencils. my manual pencil sharpeners suck big time and students use them as an excuse to get up and spend lots of time goofing off. as to the pencils, i tried to stress bringing pencils/paper/book/notebook to class as part of their responsibilities, however it was a losing battle. when i found i could request pencils, i also found it a needless battle. i gave out three ring binders packed with paper, and i'll give out pencils like candy. it's gotten to the point where i think they're selling the pencils on the street or something.

students are constantly knocking at the door and interrupting the class. today, i posted a sign outside the door. it's been popular with teachers if not students. (it's already printed two more for teachers who've requested one and replace it once after it was taken by someone.)

it says:
Students, you must have a pass from another
teacher for you to interrupt this class.

Do not knock if you do not have a pass.

it's in a nice polypropylene sheet. we'll see how long the replacement lasts.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/20/2003 11:47:00 PM : Comment

 
who me?
no sleep. dang grades. they didn't come out so well particularly algebra...pretty much all of algebra. i finally got to distribute all the graded work (now 3 hole punched) to students. they've all received their own binder with their name on it. many have decorated and personalized theirs. however...distributing didn't go so well. many didn't put their work into their binders.

i told them that keeping past work was part of the notebook grade. third period was the worst. many of the students had zeros on work that they'd decided not to do. sometimes i'd pass back a blank worksheet with the students name on it. i told them they could do the work and turn it in - with a late penalty, but it'd be much better than a zero. several students didn't respond positively to this.

one in particularly would say "nuh uh.", "oh, no you don't", etc whenever i'd give her another worksheet with a zero on it. she'd promptly rip it into little pieces. i don't understand what that was supposed to accomplish.

anyway, i'm sitting at my computer after school when the way too loud intercom interrupts. i'm asked if i have a meeting. i said i do not. the office insists that i do and that the principal (out of town) told me about it. i'm rather confused. i would remember this. i go down and try to actually talk to someone in person. (the intercom was giving me a worse headache than i already had.).

here i'm informed that i have a meeting down at the central office with some woman i have never heard of. oh...and it started 15 minutes ago. i hurry back upstairs, grab some papers, and head out with just a name and that it's taking place on the second floor.

i pull in and sign in. i go up to the second floor. i ask a receptionist where the boardroom is. she says there are three. she points me to another receptionist. she directs me to a boardroom. there is a meeting going on with 6 people. they do not stop when i enter. i take a seat at the table. i am soon swamped with roughly a ream of paper. (no joke.) i have no clue what the meeting is about. really. i'm guessing it has to do with high school math standards as we've been given the them...but we've also been given kindegarten, elementary, and middle school standards.

after i've been there about 15 minutes, the guy next to me passes me a signin sheet. i finally have my first clue as to what the meeting is about. the sheet mentions something about textbook selection committee. i hope this is a mistake or a leftover signin sheet.

i'm pretty much ignored for the next halfhour. then the facilitator says this after passing out yet another stack of papers. "i say all that to get to this." and she proceeds to confirm that we are indeed the textbook selection committee. we are to choose the math textbooks for all the courses being taught in high school for the county. i couldn't keep a straight face for the rest of the meeting. everytime i'd get to be all professional, i'd realize what i'm being asked. me...who's only been working for a little over a month. me...someone who hasn't even read though the textbooks he's teaching from. this will at least go on my resume.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/15/2003 11:36:00 PM : Comment

 
those grades
unlike nancy, i'm not finished with my grades. i have many grades to record before i sleep. back to it.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/14/2003 11:42:00 PM : Comment

 
a novel concept: teachers blogging
ran across an article about teachers blogging. lead to a couple of additions to the sidebar (and mentions the infamous tard blog). it also requires registration. (free, but annoying.) here's one nice paragraph:

"It's come to my attention that you have a Web site," the principal told her. Before Thelwell could reply, she continued: "Which is your right." After some dancing around the issue, the administrator came right out and asked, was Thelwell feeling suicidal? Then Thelwell noticed paperwork on the table stating the purpose of the meeting: Assessing the teacher's emotional state.

i have this fear.

this also stuck out at me:

Educators who blog are few and far between, but interest is growing. There's even a loosely organized Educational Bloggers Network, which claims 120 members and which will hold its first convention in San Francisco this November.

sounds fun...but i'll be teaching.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/14/2003 10:50:00 PM : Comment

 
here today.
nice little article about how well this profession treats new entrants:

"Almost a third of teachers leave the field within their first three years and half before their fifth year, according to a NCTAF report."

- posted by archimedes @ 10/12/2003 09:07:00 PM : Comment

 
official observation
well my official first observation from the principal was today. she was coming in the infamous third block. for the preobservation meeting i had to write up all about what i was going to teach, what they were going to be doing, how i was going to assess learning, special things about individual students, etc. it was a one page sheet and was designed for someone to just handwrite the information in the sections. i'm assuming most teachers don't teach three different subjects when being observed. this made for quite a bit of paperwork. oh well. at least she said i pretty much did it right.

when i first arrived at school i realized i'd left the printout of yesterday's wwe-in-school project on my desk at home. as i was to turn it in first thing, i was rather perturbed. luckily i was able to use a preceeding post to quickly print off my recollection. our school seems to have no pta or similar. i have not known anyone to volunteer there. i think this is somewhat due to the school being an alternative school so students don't plan on being there for a long time (though many are) and the sad fact that many parents are not able or willing to take such an active interest. this is all to say that we aren't regularly getting free stuff or thanks, no biggie but today the mother of one of the custodial staff made the teachers a couple of cakes. since i had not eaten (and it was good), it really was nice.

second period was mixed. some students were working hard but several of my good students were sleeping. like most fridays, attendance was low. the binders i made for the students seem to be working out. i gave the "notebook quiz" that i'd announced last week. it was a quiz using examples and definitions that were covered in class (all on the overhead); they could use their notebooks to help them take the quiz. i had even recovered several of them thursday and reminded them to put them in their notebooks so that they would do well on the quiz the next day. as long as they wrote the information in their notebooks correctly and then copied it correctly, they should get a 100 on the quiz. while i don't think there were many (if any) 100s, i did notice many more of them taking notes after the quiz. just learning how to take notes and then use them will be a big improvement. now when i get all the books i need...

when third block started...i had two students. i first thought that the rest were quite tardy (not rare); however as i looked over the roll, i noticed many had been suspended or are often absent. there weren't any skipping. the two had walked in and put their heads down. the principal hadn't arrived but i just started teaching. i was getting no response. they both were motionless as if asleep. it seemed rather pointless to teach without either one paying attention. i eventually told them that if we finished, i'd let them get on the computers. i have only let them do this once before; it did not go well. they both sat up as if the lunch bell had rung. (it always makes me laugh how a "sleeping" class wakes up in unison and leaves in a flash when it's time for lunch.) they both started taking notes. i was going over graphing horizontal and vertical lines. they were actually taking notes and answering my questions (and asking questions). this teaching thing is fun.

one of them had asked if were were going to use the calculator to graph the lines. i said we could. after we did quite a few on the board (i did some on the overhead - they did some on the overhead and the whiteboard), i said we could use the calculator to do some. i figured this would be a quick way to support the understanding. however, the second i passed out calculators, the principal knocked on the door. i swear she must think that i'm spending all my time confusing them with calculators. she sat in once for an unofficial observation. it was the other time i'd spent classtime teaching them a new technique using the calculators (plotting points). the feedback all involved using calculators in the classroom.

however she only observed for about 10 minutes until it was lunchtime. (lunch was peanut butter and jelly and carrots.) she didn't return after lunch. i asked her later about feedback, she was thinking monday. there was no mention of another observation time.

i guess it was good she didn't return; they enjoyed the time on the computers looking up information about people they knew in the criminal justice system.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/10/2003 11:41:00 PM : Comment

 
tommy's a racist.
I checked my groupwise account and got the following message from the principal.

From: Principal
To: Staff
Subject: Fwd: Yeah for Oprah
Message:Teachers, Please read this info to your students. They need to know what they are supporting.

it had an attachment which said:

Good for Oprah!!!! I'm sure many of you watched the recent taping of The Oprah Winfrey show where her guest was Tommy Hilfiger. On the show, she asked him if the statements about race he was accused of saying were true. Statements like"... if I'd known African?Americans, Hispanics, Jews and Asians would buy my clothes, I would not have made them so nice.. I wish these people would *NOT* buy my clothes, as they are made for upper class white people."

His answer to Oprah was a simple "YES". Where after she immediately asked him to leave her show.

My suggestion? Don't buy your next shirt or Perfume from Tommy Hilfiger. Let's give him what he asked for. Let's not buy his clothes. Let's put him in a financial state where he himself will not be able to afford the ridiculous prices he puts on his clothes.

BOYCOTT PLEASE, & SEND THIS MESSAGE TO ANYONE YOU KNOW !!!!!

This e-mail may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient (or have received this e-mail in error) please notify the sender immediately and destroy this e-mail. Any unauthorized copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in this e-mail is strictly forbidden.

i found this ridiculous. a simple google search lead to multiple soruces debunking this obvious falsehood.

selected sources for those interested:

• the official response from tommy
• snopes' page on the rumor
• even the adl had a page about it
• denial by oprah on her site

i responded to the principal since i figured she'd just send out another message, and it'd be done with.

Ms. Principal That message is actually without any truth. Here are some websites to read more about the rumor. I knew you'd want to know. http://www.truthminers.com/truth/tommy_hilfiger.htm http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/hilfiger.html http://www.tommy.com/help/rumor/rumorPittsburgh.jhtml
Me

a few minutes later, i get a message:

From: Principal
To: Arch
Subject: Re: Fwd: Yeah for Oprah
Message: "This was what happened on Oprah's show recently, that's all I know."

i promptly reply again:

The scenario as described never happened. Tommy Hilfiger has never been on the show. (If he had and Oprah Winfrey kicked him off, it'd have been national news.)

The websites explain the history of the rumor more fully. One of those is a newspaper article which is now hosted on the official website of Tommy Hilfiger.

i hoped that the principal would send a message before teachers arrived and were able to tell students" the truth about tommy." when i checked for messages, this was in the inbox.

From: Principal
To: Staff
Subject: Oprah Comment
Message: "Teachers, The Oprah comment/show thing was sent to me from Person UnknowntoArch. You may read it at your own discretion. It is not meant to create a riot or anything.
Principal"

since the "untruthatude" had not been address, i sent a message (with good advice/help from a friend who made it much more pleasant) to the staff and ccd the principal:

From: Arch
To: Staff
CC: Principal
Subject: Re: Oprah Comment
Message: "Afternoon all: For those who read the message purporting to be about an incident during a recording of the Oprah Winfrey Show, I thought you would be relieved to know that the information is completely untrue. The Anti-Defamation League, whose mission it is to "secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens," has researched and investigated the rumors and found them to be without merit. Please visit their letter about these rumors at http://www.adl.org/rumors/letter_hilfiger.asp

enjoy - Arch

ps. if you're still unsure, Oprah sells Tommy Hilfiger towels and quilts on her website.
towels: http://www.oprah.com/presents/2003/oathome/olist/oathome_olist_bath_04.jhtml
quilts: http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/olist/omag_olist_0029_bed.jhtml"

- posted by archimedes @ 10/10/2003 04:15:00 PM : Comment

 
retarded
i just was about to run out the door thinking i was about 5 minutes late leaving. then i realized it was still dark. somehow i woke up, thought i overslept, hurridly dressed and ran to the door - all before my alarm went off. that was dumb. i want that sleep back.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/10/2003 06:56:00 AM : Comment

 
the good
well, i was feeling pretty down about the day and then as i was typing up the report i saw a good friend show up on my buddy list. i hadn't talked to her in a while and she always cheers me up. soon she'd sent me a message and she'd brightened my day once again. i needed that. despite how much i like to think i can control how i feel, a good friend (and even better a cute girl) always proves me wrong.

i also was given a sheet during my planning period and told i was going to have a new student. he's taking algebra 2. he'll be my only algebra 2 student. (i don't even have a book. i had to borrow his.) however he's in the same block as another student who tried to use the excuse that she wanted to be in algebra 2 as the reason why she wouldn't do her tech math work. she has just recently stopped it. (we're talking like 45 mins every class.)

luckily she was not there for his first day. i was blown away. i'd forgotten what it was like to have a student do work when you assign it and to be treated with respect. he was doing high quality work and calling me sir, asking permission, etc. he rocks.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/10/2003 12:24:00 AM : Comment

 
day from hell.
I had a couple of incidents today. This was the second and less major.

Algebra 1b students were to be taking a test. STUDENT was to be working on section 3.6 in the book, however she refused to do any work. When I would remind her to get her book out or to open her book to a certain page, she would yell back with things like. "Why you talking to me?" "Why you in my face?" "Get away from me." She was extremely loud and would not stop talking - despite the fact that the other students were to be taking a test. I told students individually and as a group to stop talking over 10 times. (More likely 15-20.) Any time I told her individually to be quiet, she would yell back rudely about why I was telling only her. This of course was inaccurate. I reminded her multiple times that she had a notebook quiz tomorrow and that it would be over examples and definitions that were put on the board or overhead. Since I was pretty sure she had not taken any notes, I started writing specific examples and definitions on the overhead. I told her that these would definitely be on the notebook quiz tomorrow so she should write them in her notebook. She did not do so.

A fellow student in the back far corner of the room asked for help. As I was explaining the lesson to her, she told me she couldn't hear me. I turned and in a raised voice (so they could here me) once again told those talking they needed to be quiet. There was no change so I started to call out the names of those in the group that was talking. Immediately upon saying "STUDENT," she became irate and started screaming back at me about how I had no right to say she was talking, what's wrong with me, etc. She started swearing and being quite disrespectful. I did not respond and walked to my desk.

When I sat down and started writing her up, she stated she didn't care but continued to rant about how could I write her up for talking etc. She also made some extremely vulgar remarks. She denied that I even ever gave her any instructions for the day or told her to write down the information that I did on the overhead. In response to her comments, I informed her that I was not writing her up for talking. She then told a classmate that she should just come up and take it from me. Soon thereafter she walked up to the desk and asked to have it. I was not done with it. As I'm still writing, she grabs it and attempts to snatch it away. I was still sitting and I affixed my left hand to her left wrist to remove it from the paper. Immediately once I did so, she lunged across the desk and pushed me in the neck. I immediately released the paper and her wrist and got up away from her. I told her she would need to leave immediately. She refused to leave. I then went next door to ask Mr. Teachernextdoor for aid in either watching the class or escorting her to the office. He and I were in the front of the classroom while she prepared to leave. As she approached, I stepped back towards the dry erase board even farther to give her more room. She stated that I better give her room yet she then kept coming directly at me and put her shoulder into me and gave a shove on her way by. Mr. Teachernextdoor escorted her out.

the more involved incident:

The first time I realized that there was something of concern when I was standing by the overhead projector and going through examples. I heard Student say what I thought was that someone was "dumb." I asked her what she said and if she was speaking about a fellow student. She replied "but she is dumb" etc. I told her this was completely unacceptable. She became very disrespectful and loud and was not cooperative. At this point it was obvious she needed to leave. I told her she needed to leave. She refused and told me to "go on" and similar. I then went across the hall and got Mr. TeacherAcrossTheHall to return with me to escort her to the office. I told him she needed to leave the class.

Immediately upon her departure there was a palpable change in the classroom. The students noticed it and remarked about how quiet it became and how loud she had been. I continued teaching. About 5 minutes later there was a knock on the door. It was Student. I cracked the door and asked what she wanted. She pushed passed me and ignored me. Mr. TeacherAcrossTheHall asked if she could return. I told him I'd rather she did not. However, as it was such an ordeal to get her to leave the first time and she was already back in her seat, I just went back to teaching.

Almost immediately, I realized she was standing up and walking to the back of the room where the student she had been disparaging was sitting. I called to her to return to her seat. When she ignored me and started verbally attacking the other student, I quickly went to the back and told her to return to her seat. She kept coming at the other student. I stepped between them. She paused for a second and I thought she was about to return to her seat – instead she punched the other student in the jaw. She kept trying to draw the other student into a fight. I told another student to go next door to get Mr. TeacherAcrossTheHall. It quickly degenerated further as Student kept lunging towards the other student and I tried to stay between them.

The pushing led to the student and I eventually falling over a bookshelf. Before the student could stand back up, Student kicked her in the face. I pulled her away. She did not settle down and wanted to continue the altercation. Mr. TeacherNextDoor had arrived and Student gathered her items and went into the hall where she was escorted to the office.

i felt like i let the one student down by not removing the bully and letting the assault take place.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/09/2003 04:45:00 PM : Comment

 
posts
so i'm still alive. they just threaten me so far. i've got stories to write up...just not the energy. i really need to start exercising again. i have been making some notes and storing the stories as drafts. when i get some energy, there'll be some decent stories. i also found a few educational links and blogs by teachers/educators and have added them to the sidebar. if you know of some good ones, let me know.
- posted by archimedes @ 10/08/2003 11:16:00 PM : Comment