CHALLENGE ACCEPTED: Survival in the World of Inner-City Teaching Part 7

So there I was in my second year of teaching and the administration was leaving me alone. I think I was probably angering them because I did not tuck my tail and run (I saw several teachers quit in my first two years) but stood up and fought back. Then there was the problem of leadership. I was in my early 40s and was an experienced leader. The members of the History and Social Studies team liked me and were as inexperienced (or even more so) as I was so I was also promoted to department chair. All in all, things were moving along, the students were great and learning, behavior issues were minimal, and I was creating friendships with fellow teachers. I am not saying everything was perfect, but I was standing up and doing my job with the support of my fellow teachers and the students.

THE SET UP

Sometimes staring at the challenge ahead on is scary

In March I was asked to proctor a test for the eighth grade students (I was teaching sixth grade at the time but as Department chair it was part of my job). As I explained in an earlier entry, I worked at a year round school. That meant that there were breaks scattered throughout the school year. Instead of sending students home, we did enrichment activities for part of the vacation, allowing students to get deeper into the history of the events we were teaching. We would bring in re-enactors, other historians, or take the students on field trips. At that time the only middle school class that had to take a standardized history test was eighth grade. So I administered the test while the eighth grade teacher covered my classes. When I gave the Director the results of the test (they were not good) he was stunned. He asked me what I would do? Remember when I told you in my last entry that I buckled down and did my research? Well it paid off. I outlined a comprehensive program on a scrap piece of paper that I thought would allow us to prepare our students for the test. That afternoon the Principal came to me and said, “Mike, I need you to teach eighth grade, if we can help you, please let me know.” I know from interviews since that it was a painful thing for him to ask me.

STICK IT TO THE MAN

You are faced with having to cross the tracks but cannot see the other side

So I moved classrooms with just about 45 days to get ready for a major test. Please understand that while I am not a fan of testing as a way to measure student performance (I would much rather see students produce a real product, like a movie or report), I was putting my butt on the line and betting I could teach. I vividly remember walking into the eighth-grade classroom that first morning after the practice test, I wrote a three feet tall number on the board. I pointed to it and I said, “that is how many days we have until the test, no one believes in you and no one believes in me. I say we stick it to the man and prove him wrong. If you promise to work hard, I promise to work ten times harder than you do so we can all be successful.” Every class that day cheered.

THE GAUNTLET IS THROWN

You cannot run from your problems, even if it makes you smile

So there it is, I had thrown down THE GAUNTLET of challenge. Obviously things turned out all right, I stayed in the classroom, but how right? I will continue the story in the next few days (probably tomorrow but the muse may tell me otherwise). I will share this; I probably was more innovative in those 45 days of teaching than I was at any other two-month period in my life. I had to be flexible, adaptive, and reflective. I was rewriting lesson plans between class blocks. I was also not dealing with discipline issues regularly. I dealt with them the first week and after that I simply dismissed anyone who acted up from the classroom; they waited outside the door until I had time for them. Pretty soon kids figured it out and just behaved or at least sat quietly. Additionally, I have to say that students engaged in learning do not cause problems, unless they existed before they walked in the door.

LOYALTY IS EARNED

While life may be a beach, you have to be happy with your decisions

A quick story, I had some lively students. Standard practice was that you walked the students to lunch in an orderly line. That was pretty easy for me, if they started to act up I simply took them back to the classroom and we started over. After the first day and a 15-minute lunch, students knew I was serious. One day I was walking the students down the hall and one of the administrators chastised a young man at the head of the line for misbehaving. I was watching and knew he did nothing wrong. Let’s just say the quiet side conversation between the administrator and me was not quiet long. Every kid in the line heard me tell her that he did nothing wrong and she was to leave my classes alone, I would deal with them. Talk about winning kids to your side. They can respect strictness, if you are fair as well. While it was not my intention, I won a lot of loyalty from students that day and it paid off over the years. Students rarely misbehaved in my class and when I corrected them they tightened up.

M.

Previous entries:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Photo credits: All photographs were taken with my Canon EOS60D. 1, 2, and 4 on my cross country trip in 2014 when I wrote the field notes these recollections are based on. 3 is of my Sheltie, Doc Holliday and was taken at a family event. 5 was taken by my son on one of our Tennessee riding trips.

If you like these entries or have any questions or want to offer encouragement please post a comment or hit the upvote button, while making money is not really my concern I would like to know that I am not shouting into an empty canyon.

Hello! I am Mike K. I am an educator, lifelong student, military vet and wannabe musician. I have a love of history, economics, philosophy and motorcycles. I am quickly moving from minarchy to Christian anarchy philosophically and want people to stop meddling. My debut CD should be out soon!

Riding in Tennessee with my son on the Green Eyed Snake