Descriptive Writing - Helping Students Connect to Human Emotion

So it's 4:39am and I am sitting in my living room waiting for the clock to read 5:00 so I can leave for my 5:13 train.

My family is upstairs, still sleeping. I can hear the sounds of my 4-year-old snoring slightly. But, alas, my day has begun.

I can say with no hesitation that this is the hardest job I have ever had. In addition to being physically draining from being such a long day, it is also mentally taxing. At the end of the school day yesterday, I was standing with the principal in the main corrider of the school discussing something. He had to interrupt me to attempt to catch a student from our program (not in my class, but in one of the other 3 classes in the alternative middle school program). I heard him very politely request a word with the student. The student's response? "Nah, F*&k you, man," and he kept walking.

I know many teachers would have been shocked for a student to say that to a principal, but not us. It's par for the course. Growing a thick skin is a MUST for this job.


***

One of my challenges in teaching in this program is finding a way for the students to connect with the material. The small group I have is very inquisitive. They want to know about the world.

In an effort to teach about descriptive writing and creating mental pictures for the reader, I needed to make them understand about the human condition. Because in no way were they going to be able to utilize language to convey depth of meaning without fully comprehending human emotion. I showed them about 60 minutes worth of the Boxing Day 2004 Tsunami footage. It was raw, unedited, and horrifying. They were riveted.

They asked insightful questions and wanted to know and understand more. I then launched into a lesson about earthquakes, tectonic plates and how tsunamis are formed. They got to see the scientific side and the human side. They began to understand a little more about human loss and I could see the compassion on their faces -- the compassion they so desperately try to mask by being "tough."

The writing that poured out of them following these videos was amazing. Real writers are starting to emerge -- if I can only get them to utilize punctuation. I am excited to see what more writing they have in store for me this year.


Here is the link to the Tsunami footage I showed. It is an 8 part YouTube documentary, and about 80 minutes long total. I didn't show the whole thing, but enough for the students to truly understand what happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9HIXZmmSus

Positive Reinforcement in the Inner City

To any teachers who decide to take a job teaching in the inner city, I have one piece of advice for you: take everything you have been taught about behavior management and throw it right into the trash.

Teaching in an alternative program has taught me that there are kids in the world who just need more. More of everything. I have 3 different students born in 3 different countries, 3 different nationalities, and 3 different styles of parenting. 

Below is a rough replica of the chart our program uses, designed by the whole team, to combat behaviors:

My daily personal goal: “To control my temper” (example)

	Respect Others?	Respect Self?	Respect School?	Did you work toward meeting your daily goal? Y/N	How were you feeling?	Total
Period 1	* * *	* * *	* * *			9
Period 2
Period 3
LUNCH
Period 4
Period 5
Period 6
Period 7

*            Rising Star

**            Shining Star

***            Shooting Star

Students can earn between 1 and 3 STARS for each of the 3 goals in the chart. So on any given day a student can earn up to 90 stars, but no less than 30. No matter their behavior, they will always earn 1 star just for showing up to school. 

The key here is to make sure I use the correct language when addressing these goals. Students do not “lose” stars. They only “earn” stars. So I might say to a student, “Make good behavior choice so you can earn all 90 stars today.” OR “Are you working on earning stars right now?” OR “Is this behavior going to help you earn stars?

This language is IMPERATIVE if this system is going to work. They need to understand that they cannot lose stars. This is an extremely important teaching tool. Once a student earns something, under no circumstances should it be taken away. An adult can never understand the feeling a child has when watching himself being stripped of all he worked to earn.

To draw a comparison – imagine you are building a house. You work really hard for weeks. Then one day you make a mistake during building, like putting a window in crookedly. Would your boss then come and tear the whole house down? No, he would just ask you to fix that window. It has to be the same for students.

Check back for a more comprehensive chart in downloadable PDF format soon!

A Day in the Life of an Inner City Teacher

When I first started teaching, I pictured myself driving into the suburbs through greenery and past parks, tennis courts and well kept houses with white picket fences. I imagined I would walk into the school and see smiling faces, ready to give me a big hello and welcome. I imagined I would have a moderately sized class, around 20 or 22, half boys, half girls whose work would give me the perfect bell curve.

I was wrong. Instead, my life in education is vastly different than I ever could have imagined. Growing up, I heard that the greater the work, the bigger the reward. God, I hope that is right.

I initially chose teaching because I believed it would be a great fit with my life as a mother of two beautiful boys. I could work a 7-8 hour day, including travel time and be home in time to make a healthy and delicious dinner. I might even be able to pick my kids up from school.

My day begins at 8:30pm the night before. I take my shower, lay out clothes (both for myself and my kids), I pack lunches (for myself and for my 4 year old who is in preschool) and pack backpacks (also both for myself and my 4 year old.) I also take some meat out of the freezer to make for dinner the following night.

I am in bed by 9 and asleep by 10 (assuming my kids are asleep. If one is sick or having trouble sleeping, I am up too). You might be wondering why I am doing this all on my own. My wonderful, amazing partner in crime, my husband Wesley, works night for TSA at Logan Airport. He is the ultimate dad – works nights, goes to school and takes care of our two boys while I work. Oh and he also runs a photography company as a side job. More later on how little I see my husband and how we make that work!

When my alarm clock goes off at 4:30, I try very hard not to wake Wes who only came home from work 4 hours prior to that. I also try very hard not to wake the kids who share a room right next to mine. I quickly wash up, dress and am downstairs and out the door by 5.

I walk swiftly to the train station (only a few hundred yards from my house). I always have just enough time to buy a coffee and wait for the 5:13 am train.

I arrive in the inner city, just outside of Boston, by 6:05am. The inner city where I work is less than 2 square miles and has a major poverty epidemic. I step off the train and am hit in the face with a wall of stink—trash. The train station here smells like trash. I walk past some freshly painted graffiti from the night before which only covers old graffiti. It is still dark, so I walk very quickly to the school, which is very close to the train station. I walk under the highway overpass on my way. 

I am in my classroom by 6:15, one hour and 10 minutes before the students arrive. This is how I like to do my prep work. The building is quiet (except for the security guards doing their rounds and the principal and vice principal in their offices, custodians, plus a few teachers). I whip around the room planning for the day.

Promptly at 7:25 the early bell rings and a barrage of students clamber up the stairs from the cafeteria where many of them have just had breakfast. I watch as my students enter the classroom, one by one. I very rarely get a smile from them this early in the day. Until all 3 are in the room. Yup, 3. I teach an alternative middle school program. I teach students who haven’t been successful in the mainstream classroom and need alternative teaching methods, one on one and sometimes, a probation officer.

The blocks we teach are 63 minutes long and the students are with my assistant and me most of the day. At some point, I have a team meeting while the students are with another teacher. The meeting is comprised of myself, two other teachers, two paraprofessionals, a social worker, an outreach coordinator and the director of our program who is also a social worker (clinician). The members of the team have fewer teachers than social workers … even the two paras are social work students (BTW they are amazing).

At 11:30, I go to lunch – I get 25 minutes. I usually eat in my classroom to allow me some quiet time to decompress. Some view this as anti-social and that it makes me unapproachable. But I feel I would be very difficult for my team and students to be around if I didn’t have that time to myself.

During my lunch, I call home and talk to my husband and 4 year old, and now my family members have started putting the phone up to the ear of my 11-month old so he can hear my voice. Not being home when they wake up is a huge adjustment. This is the first job I have had where I leave before the kids get up.

The students are dismissed at 3:36pm. I quickly clean up, shut down my computer and rush to make it to Dunkin Donuts before my 4:12 train home. I make it home around 5:15, and immediately get in my car and go pick up my kids. If I am lucky, my mom invites us to stay for dinner. If not, I pick them up, go home by 5:45 and get dinner together (FYI: The crockpot has become my best friend!!)

After dinner, I dump plates in the sink and take my two boys up for a bath. This is my favorite time of day. They LOVE having a tubby! We splash, play, color on the walls, and scrub the long day off. Then it’s pajamas, playtime for 30 minutes and bed for my munchkins.

Then comes the rounds of “mommy, I need some water” or “mommy, will you lay with me?” or “mommy, are you going to leave without me?” My poor 4 year old has been having anxiety at bedtime, knowing when he wakes in the morning I won’t be there. I believe he will adjust and having his dad home every morning has been helpful for the transition.

Once the kids are settled and hopefully asleep, I start all over again!! It’s a long, tiring day, but I believe the rewards that will come throughout the year will be worth it...at least, I hope!