A Little Hope.

Today during after school program in my classroom, eight of my students treated a staff member to a concert. They sang the Fifty Nifty song, 3s, 4s, 12s, and 9s. It was pretty cool, even though I was in a bad mood.

Then, Trey, who is one of my more troublesome students, gave me a little compliment.

"Mr. Lyu, I can do 60 multiplication problems in less than two minutes now. I could never have done that if it wasn't for those songs. It's all because of you, because no one else would have done that for us. It's all because of you. You're a good teacher."

That was nice... I'm glad he was in a good mood today, because he's normally not. Still, such a smart kid...

Thanksgiving in one day!

Who's the Principal?

A lot of people in the reform movement talk about incapable teachers and administrators who don't really know what they're doing. So, I wonder if we should just hire this guy because he's actually doing the work and learning.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/the-ghostwriter/

Maybe the cheaters have so much work that they have to outsource it.

Yeah, right...

I'm a Cheater.

As testing as it can be sometimes to have to work with a co-teacher that I don't agree with a lot of the time, I am extremely grateful because it lessens the load on me. I already find it difficult to teach half the day, and the couple of times where I needed to cover the whole day, I felt extremely incapable.

I came across this little article the other day, and it really makes a lot of sense to me. A lot of my TFA friends are struggling just as much or more than I do because they are getting thrown into elementary school classes and are being expected to actually teach for 6, 7 hours on their own. My hat is tipped to all of them because I couldn't do it.

So thank you, co-teacher. Thank you, buffer zone. And to all of the first year teachers who are really doing it all: you are so brave.

Charm City.

A couple of nights ago, there were helicopters with spotlights flying back and forth above our block. The street on both sides was also surrounded by cop cars, and a dozen officers were walking around outside our house.

I found out today that there have been five armed robberies on our block in the last week.

Welcome to Charm City!

Through Their Eyes.

I can't imagine what it must be like to be a student in an urban school.

Today was quite possibly the worst day since I've been here. It wasn't because of anything the kids did, though. I think it just got to me how bad of an experience in school they have, and how they are getting cheated out of actual learning. I felt bad for them all day. I was sad for them, and wanted so badly to apologize to them all for the way the adults here treat them.

This is what my students' day looked like today:

• 8.05-8.30 Word Study
• 8.35-9.20 Resource - Gym
• Wait. Actually, they were there for 10 minutes, then the whole class was marched back to our room (so I couldn't do any work) and was told to sit in silence by the resource teacher and write sentences about how they will follow directions.
• 9.20-10.30 Reading
• I wasn't here most of the time because I had to be in a meeting about one of our students with serious behavior and academic problems.
• 10.30-11.55 School Psychologist's Visit. 
• Right before this happened, the person across the hall sent three kids into our classroom because they were in trouble. They were told to sit there and do math work.
• Within 5 minutes the psychologist had sent three kids away and yelled at the rest of them for talking... which, of course, they did more of. It was not pretty. So basically they were in trouble this whole time too.
• 11.55-12.15 Recess
• My co-teacher kept 20 of the kids in to do homework they didn't do. Fair enough. The three kids from the other classroom, she told to keep working even though they had been told they could go to recess. Of course, they start yelling, refusing to work, and cussing.
• 12.15-12.30 Lunch
• The kids got yelled at by the lunch lady the whole time. Two of them got in a physical fight, they got yelled at some more, and they came into my class 15 minutes late because of lunch.
• 12.45-2.00 Math
• Up until this point, the kids have basically been yelled at and in trouble the whole day.
• The kids from across the hall got sent back with no work, so they started yelling and cussing at my students. My co-teacher told all the other teachers in the hall that they could definitely send misbehaving students to our class because "I'll (read: she will) take care of them." Except she wasn't there to do anything, and because of the shape of our classroom, I couldn't see where the other kids were. Kids were coming in and out of my door because my co-teacher told them to come in here, they were sitting in the doorway, my students are freaking out because they can't concentrate with all the commotion.
• My one new kid, Bonnie (I realize I never wrote about this awesome kid...) is running in and out of the door like she always does after lunch.
• The mother of one of the kids who got in the fight comes in and asks me to fill out a behavior evaluation for him because she's taking him in to get checked up immediately. I'm trying to deal with her and teach, my kids are confused, the other kids are making tons of noise, and this whole time, my Johns Hopkins advisor is sitting in the back watching me and taking notes.
• 2.15-2.45 Science
• We pushed on through science even though everyone had a rough time during math. Everyone is still freaking out about the way the whole day has gone, and all I can think about is how much of their day was wasted today by teachers yelling and not actually working with them. 

I honestly think the only time today they were actually learning was for the two hours they had after lunch, and even that was a struggle. At the end, I looked through their little exit tickets (they're like little quizzes) and only half of them got what we were working on today.

I'll re-teach it tomorrow.

What a ridiculous day. I hate adults sometimes. Is there anyone that can treat these kids like people and not like things to just order around? Maybe I'm the same way (I'm sure I am sometimes) and I just can't see it. But can anyone have a conversation with the kids instead of lecture at them?

Seriously, am I going crazy? I feel like I'm caught between wanting to help the kids learn to make decisions on their own and feeling like I need to be in control of the classroom. What the hell can I do?

Eight more days until home...

Ob-SERVED.

I got formally observed by my assistant principal today. I'm probably going to get fired.

Lessons learned: have multiple bins of markers so kids don't fight over them; tell them where the markers should stay so they don't take the whole box somewhere, and predetermine a space for them to work. Also, don't give kids shape blocks and expect them to do work on a page if you walk away.

Somehow, though, 100% of my students got 100% on the quiz I gave at the end of the day.

I'm going to get ripped apart tomorrow during my post-observation conference.

Phone Call.

I was at a TFA event tonight when I got a call from a parent.

"Mr. Lyu? Are you there?"
"Tania? Is that you?" It wasn't a parent.
"Yeah. Can you help me? I don't understand mixed numbers."

Tania had missed class today because of a dentist appointment. Normally, kids can come back to school from appointments, but not when they have to take an hour-long bus ride to get there. Anyway, I left the event for a bit and tried my best to explain it over the phone. I'll meet with her tomorrow to see how she did with the work, but it's still really cool to have a kid call because they want to ask a question about something we're learning.

Oh, and just in case you're wondering... Her teeth are healthy.

Album Reviews.

The verdict is in, and here are the reviews of my latest record:

"Mr. Lyu, your voice ain't right." -Trey

"This sounds funny." -Dajah

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" -The rest of the class 

One day, maybe I'll find something I'm good at.

UPDATE: First thing in the morning, a student comes in and says, "Mr. Lyu! I love that CD! I listened to it 8 times with my mom and we just laughed at you the whole time!"

Going Platinum.

I am now a recording artist with a whopping 25 albums sold given out for free.

These are the multiplication songs that I wrote for my students. I am an awful singer, but we don't have enough time do all of this in class, and so I'm going to send it home and have them learn the songs on their own.

• 3's (to "You Belong with Me" by Taylor Swift)
• 4's (to "Baby" by Justin Bieber)
• 6's (to "Mad" by Ne-Yo)
• 7's (to "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy)
• 8's (to "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus)
• 9's (to "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz)
• 12's (to "California Gurls" by Katy Perry)

Here are the lyrics. The state song on there is something else I was doing with the kids. No, I didn't write that. It's actually good.

I'm not a big fan of the 7's song. Please don't laugh. Fingers crossed that this works for the kids. Hopefully I'll be able to upload a couple videos of the kids singing the 3's and 4's.

One Nice Thing.

I complain a lot about being away from home. I've made a ring countdown thing for days until I get back to California for Thanksgiving break. But, one thing that I have noticed is that the colors here in the fall are just amazing. That is definitely one thing that I appreciate about the East coast.