March 31, 2014
1st Hour: 7:05- 8:15 (1 hour 10 minutes)
Sequence of Events:
- ACT
Prep
- Student
Poetry Slam
- Poetry:
Claude McKay
- Fire
Alarm
Description of Episode:
The students had written poems a few days before,
and all students were invited to share their work. One student, J___ shared
a spoken word poem. J____stood in front of the class and delivered a poem
that was essentially the epitome of what one would expect to hear from a
teenage spoken word poem. It had angst, sarcasm, and all of the emotion of a
teenager. She perfectly imitated the cadence, flow, and rhythm that she had
heard from her poetry teacher.
Analysis of Episode:
At first, I was delighted by this episode. I love to
see self-expression in the classroom. However, something felt “off” about
Jennifer’s poem and it wasn’t until I was two hours into a spoken word poetry
binge on YouTube that I realized what was bothering me. Jennifer’s poem was
“technically” perfect, but it didn’t feel genuine to me. It didn’t feel genuine
because I felt that she had imitated her teacher too well. Her piece was too
formulaic. These students had the option of expressing themselves in any way
they wanted, and yet most of them stuck with the exact structure (and delivery)
that was shown by their teachers. This bothers me because I felt that the teachers
had (completely by accident) taught the students that there was a “right” way
to do poetry and there was a “right” way to express themselves. This is an influence
that is a bit terrifying to me. I never want to accidentally shove my students
“inside the box” and make them think that they need to stay there. This episode
made me realize that I need to be extremely cognizant of the way I teach
writing and other methods of self expression. Teachers hold enormous influence
over their students, and I can see where it could be easy to fall into the trap
of accidentally teaching your students that they need to imitate a specific
formula in order to express themselves. I can see why Jennifer did what she
did. Many people stick to imitating when they are still trying to “find
themselves,” particularly with writing or spoken word poetry. There is an
accepted, almost expected structure when it comes to delivering spoken word,
and I feel like it’s really important to keep that in mind when teaching
poetry. Just because a certain form is effective,
doesn’t mean it is the only way, or even the “right” way (as if there IS a
right way!) [AW2]
[AW2]Your
discussion here reminds me of a headline in the ironic paper, The Onion, that I
once saw: “Studies Show Non-Conformity Linked to Conformity.” Haha! Yeah, it
does get a little exhausting. Have you ever read Lorca’s essay “The Theory and
Play of Duende”? He breaks down how great art shatters form. How do you teach
this? Maybe by teaching students to appreciate it in other texts first? There
could also be a “freshness” column on the rubric!?
April 2nd, 2014
1st Hour: 7:05- 8:15 (1 hour 10 minutes)
Sequence of Events:
- Sign
in at visitor’s log
- Observe
student yelling
- ACT
prep
- Preparing
for Edusoft Test
Description of Episode:
Each morning, I must sign into the visitor’s log for
McKinley High school before I can go to my assigned classroom. This morning, I
walked into the office, and a female student immediately stood up and yelled at
another student “Bitch! Why the fuck you do that?!” I made eye contact with the
student, and the student rolled her eyes. I looked over to the group of actual
teachers and office workers (there were at least 8 in the office at the time)
and only two looked up. They glanced at me, and then one teacher said “Why are
you using that language?” The student rolled her eyes again, and then the
teacher looked away. I walked out of the office.
Analysis of Episode:
This episode stuck with
me throughout the rest of the day. I’m still not sure how I should have handled
this situation, nor how I should have handled it even if I were a real teacher
at Mckinley. “Swearing” doesn’t bother me. It was the anger and disrespect in
that student’s voice and body language that shocked me, and then essentially
every adult in the room just pretending it didn’t happen. Is ignoring that type
of outburst helping the student? The
complete indifference from the staff really confused me. From what I
understand, that type of behavior is pretty commonplace at McK, but is there
really no way to handle it? The student needs to learn that there are
consequences for her inappropriate behavior (aka there should be consequences
for this type of behavior.) I have had a
few incidents like this so far while observing, and it’s upsetting to me each
time. I have never been someone to “act out” like that, and so it is a bit
difficult for me to relate. At any rate, I still think that this type of outburst should not
have just gone unnoticed like it seemed to me.There
could have been quite a few things that could have been done by teachers in
that moment- calling her in for a private meeting, reprimanding her out loud,
writing her up, asking her to apologize, genuinely asking her what is wrong… I
didn’t know the student, and I definitely didn’t feel that it was my place to
say anything, but it has me thinking about the best ways to handle issues like
“disrespect” and loud outbursts. Unfortunately, a lot of my solutions depend
entirely on the situation and my relationship with the student. Honestly
though, I think a vocal reprimand in that moment would have been better than
simply ignoring it.
April 30th, 2014
1st Hour: 7am- 8:15am (1 hour 15
minutes)
Sequence of Events:
• AP
Prep
• Morning
Announcements
• Discussion
about cops at school
• Independent
Work day
Description of Episode:
Before I walked into the school, I
noticed that the school was surrounded with police officers. During morning
announcements, it was announced that club pictures (that were scheduled for
that day) were cancelled. The announcer then went on a 5 minute rant regarding
the excessive fighting that had happened that week, and reiterated that if
anyone had another conflict with another student that they should involve an
adult. The main message of his announcement was that violence was not a
solution, and that violence would not be tolerated at McKinley. After the announcements, Mrs. Samuel looked
at me and said, “Mrs. Matthews, If you were wondering about all of the police
officers on our campus, they are here because we have had 7 or 8 fights this
week alone.” I did not respond, but nodded my head. One student asked, “Why is
this happening so much?” Mrs. Samuel responded that she believed it was due to
the excessive amount of technology in teenagers’ lives and that this technology
was breaking down society’s ability to communicate. The student said, “oh.”
Analysis of Episode:
This is so far beyond my high school
experience that I am not sure I really know how to process or talk about it. It
scared me to see so many police officers surrounding the school. I wasn’t sure
what had happened or how I was supposed to react. I truly wonder at how that type of
environment is affecting students and their ability to focus in school. Using
my own experiences as a reference, I think I would be freaked out if I had to
go to school in which fights were constantly breaking out and there were police
officers everywhere. McKinley students don’t seem all that phased by this type
of occurrence. That makes me sad. I don’t want students to think that it’s okay
to accept violence as “the norm.” I felt a bit conflicted by the way Mrs.
Samuel handled the question of “why” the students were fighting so much. I
really hoped that the question would lead to a class discussion (which is
probably where I would have taken the question had I been in her place) but the
students just accepted her answer with an “oh” or a nod of the head, and then
they just went back to work. I hope that McKinley addresses this issue more.
There needs to be a school wide conversation about how to handle anger,
violence, and how to communicate, and consequences of actions. I think that
there are more than enough great teachers at McKinley to make that conversation
happen, and to make it an effective conversation. I don’t think kids are
fighting because they are just “bad” kids. I think this is a complicated
situation in which students, teachers, and parents need to actively talk and
create solutions for. I am connecting
this situation with a news article/documentary I read a few years ago called “A
Walk in my Shoes.” CNN interviewed students that went to schools with high
rates of you-on-youth violence. Most students agreed that they fought for
“survival,” which seems like a simple concept, but “survival” meant completely
different things to each student. To some, survival meant literally to not be
killed. To others it meant that they protected their reputation and the
reputation of their friends and family and climbed the social ladder. The perspectives of the students were (of
course) extremely different than the perspectives of the authorities. The
authorities thought that most of the fighting was due to pure anger and
outbursts, but many of the fights were well planned. This is definitely a
subject I will need to research.
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