A Teacher's Aide's Journal #11

                                                            Week 2

     The first day of the week usually begins with a PLC (Professional Learning Communities).  Today was a school wide PLC that met in the auditorium.  At the meeting, there were three presentations.  The Principal started everything with a brief commentary on the heat.  He acknowledged that there would be a heat problem in the building as some rooms on the third floor and in the basement might reach over 90 degrees.  He told the teachers that there were cooling centers where they could take their classes if needed.  Those were the auditorium and the cafeteria, which was 75% air conditioned.  After his introduction, Mr. DeJesus and Rebecca Allen presented the primary function of the Student Support operations they were heading.  They said that the purpose of the operation was to identify students who failed Geometry and English during their sophomore year.  According to the presentation, the data showed that most of the students who do not pass Geometry also do not graduate.  87% of students who did not graduate on time failed Geometry.  The Student Support operation was supposed to coordinate PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Support) and the RtI (Response to Intervention).  This team would also manage academic intervention efforts in English and Math, as well as identify troubled students.  The operation would plan to support students who lacked specified skills and try to address attendance issues.  The team would do this by creating and managing learning labs and asked for teachers to volunteer their free periods or lunch to help. 

      At fourth period English class, the heat got to Jessica again. I watched her struggle and tried to think of a possible point where she might break.  Before we entered the hot room on the third floor, I told Jessica that if the heat is ever a problem she should let me know and we could take a break.  I noticed in class how she tried to use a bottle of water to keep her head cool by pressing the bottle to her brow.  It didn’t work.  She struggled to keep herself concentrated on doing the work that was given to her.  If I was the teacher, I would have had a different kind of assignment.  The students had to complete the 75 question diagnostic exam they started on Friday – three days ago.  When that was complete, the students were assigned to read a packet, take notes on the vocabulary, and answer the questions at the end of the packet.   I sat in my chair thinking to myself that I would have come up with something different to do as a distraction from the heat.  A team building activity would have worked well since the seats were all grouped together in clusters of four.  I wrote my Master’s Degree paper on cooperative learning.  As such, I naturally look for particular signs or behaviors when students are in groups.  One thing I learned is that if there is no group assignment or task, then the mere clustering of chairs becomes a social event encouragement.   Anyhow, the assignment was due September 5^th.  The present date was August 25^th.  More than two weeks, in my opinion, was too much time for an English teacher to give to an honors class.   The packet was five pages front and back.  Four pages were from a short story.

      Jessica, however, was very distracted by the heat and unable to focus on the assignment.  She started to close her eyes very tightly and grit her teeth.  I didn’t know if this was the beginning of an autistic tantrum that I expected her to have.  Eventually, she looked at me and asked if she could take a break.  I said yes and we walked out into the hallway.  Jessica was irritable, complaining about a headache.  She said that she didn’t understand why we were not released early from school.  She thought that parents should complain.  Jessica assumed that those who made decisions on whether or not the students should go home were sitting in an air-conditioned room.  She thought that those “pencil pushers” on the school board should come to the school and see how hot it was. 

      Fortunately, the sky became dark and rain followed bringing a cool breeze through the windows. I took Jessica to the first floor where it was cooler and we opened a door that led to the courtyard.  She stood there and took in the breeze while making an observation of the dirt at the threshold.  She said the school was dirty and that the janitors should clean the building.  The restrooms smelled badly and the toilets were never flushed.  She hated to go into the restrooms because they were so dirty.  I did not give fuel to her fire, instead I took an angle designed to give her insight at how difficult the jobs are for many people.  Relating to the board members who “do not care about the students and only care about money,” I said, “It must be tough for them.  They don’t have enough money to buy supplies to give teachers or pay for air conditioners.  Then people say we are cheap and broke.  So if they put their concentration on getting money, then people say that they only care about money.   That must be tough for them.”

     When I saw that she was cool and seemed less focused on being hot, I suggested that she return to class and work on the vocabulary.  She thought that she could regain focus and then we returned to class.

     The seventh and last period class – Civics – was just as hot as or even hotter than 4^th period, but Jessica seemed immune to it.  She likes this class.  The subject of rules and laws is very appealing to her. She liked to give her opinion and raised her hand to share with every question. The teacher’s class discussion strategy was simple.  She asked the students to write on paper a list of school rules and why they were needed.  Then the students were allowed to share.  Once, the teacher was interrupted when Rene tried to put on his headphones.  She broke off from the conversation to tell him to put them away.  She asked the students to write a second list of home rules and then society rules.  She led the discussion and at times asked students who did not join the discussion to share what they wrote.  Most times, when Jessica and I left this class (as we always did with 8 minutes remaining); she was so excited that she continued the conversation with me.  Due to the fact that she tries to stay in this class as long as possible she is often a few minutes late to catch her bus home. 

     It was about this time in the school year that I noticed something wrong with a few teachers.  The English teacher in particular won my suspicions.  I started to question her methods starting with the amount of time she gave honor students to do a simple assignment.  In my experience, students are given honor classes without being given honors teachers.  What I mean by this is that in this school district, I've heard teachers say that there is no different from honors classes and regular classes.  The students in honors classes are just expected to do a little bit more work.  When the administrators and the school board people talk about improving scores, I believe that it should start with the honors classes.  A typical honors student should be a student who has demonstrated an ability to think at a higher level and match that higher level of thought with a higher work ethic.  I saw on this day that the work ethic or the higher level of thought was not expected from the English Honors class.  Furthermore, in terms of teaching strategies, I did not see any evidence of one.  When I compare this teacher to the Civics teacher, I am convinced that the English teacher or the English department needed work.  

A Teacher's Aide's Journal #10

                                                             August 21, 2014

      I came to work 15 minutes early and Jessica (my student dealing with autism) was already there waiting for me.  The bus that brings her to school each day arrived about 25 minutes before the start of class.  Although I saw her, I was not able to do anything with her as I had to wait until the proper time to punch the clock and begin work.  I was a part time worker and as such, it was forbidden for me to punch in before 7:45.  My official start time was 8:50 which was the same time that first period begun.  I found it interesting that I was expected to have Jessica in class at 8:50 for the start of class when I officially start work at 8:50.  This being said, I adjusted by punching in for work at 7:45.  Another interesting thing about punching in for work was that teacher’s aides are paid by contract; a certain amount of money per year and so it makes no difference if we punch in early or punch out late.  We cannot milk the clock.  Mrs. Bernard, the time clock  Nazi, as I call her because she sat at her desk just outside of the principal’s office and always looked at her computer clock whenever someone clocked in or out for work.  She told me that if I continued to clock in before 7:45, I would get in trouble.  According to her, “if we were to get audited, it would show that we were in violation of the contract.”  So as a part time teacher’s aide, I am supposed to start work at the same time first period begun and I was supposed to clock out at the same time seventh period ended.  Knowing what I know about Special Education and IEPs and state laws, if I did things exactly as I was supposed to do, Jessica would get to first period 3 or 4 minutes late every day and she would have to leave 7^th period 10 minutes early so that I could escort her to her locker and then to the door where she would catch her bus to go home.  This means that she would miss nearly an hour of instructional time each week – a violation of state law.  So it appeared to me that no matter what I did, there was going to be someone’s law broken. 

      Today was hot.  Opened windows and doors coalesced with electric fans supplied by the teachers from their own bank accounts did not work at all.  I perspired just from sitting.  I didn’t even want to touch the desk as it made my arms perspire.  Most all the children seemed sleepy, I was sure that their fatigue came from the heat.   

     There was not much to happen today.  Jessica tested out of Spanish One and was now in Spanish Two, so her new schedule was waiting for me in my mailbox, just as her councilor agreed to do.  Yesterday, I told the councilor that Jessica had tested out of Spanish One and she would need a schedule change.  I did this so that we would not have to waist class time or lunch time today.  It worked out well.  Only the location of her second period class changed nothing else.  In Geometry, they worked on more inductive reasoning activities where they drew figures and identified patterns.  Then they learned some definitions of lines, line segments, planes, collinear, and distances between points.  It was termed by Mr. Carter, the language of Geometry.  I thought it was interesting the way they learned the definitions.  Mr. Carter did not present them a word or draw a diagram on the board.  He used the Promethean board and some slides from the computer – all of this is a part of the Agile Mind program.  There were images of building structures and bridges.  From the images the class was to come up with a collective definition of the terms.  This took the entire period.  I left thinking that it was nice to appeal to the different learning strategies, but for me, it works just as well if a teacher told me that a plan was a flat surface with at least three different points that were not in a line.   

Spanish class was a review of Spanish One; they played a competitive vocabulary game divided in three groups of nine.  Each group was given a white board and dry erase marker to write down their answers.  When they did so, they were to hold up the board and the teacher would choose who was first.  The person with the correct answer won points for his or her team. 

     After lunch, I spent time looking for Jessica, Ms. Yarbrough took her to get a book for Civics class.  She arrived at English class five minutes after the bell.  There, in English, she had a small uncomfortable moment when she noticed the fire alarm on the wall.  She became distracted and I noticed that she had no focus.  When she stood from her seat, she walked to me and started to read the board in the corner of the room by the exit.  Then she told me that she noticed the alarm and I knew that it was time to remove her to a quiet and semi contained place before she had a tantrum.  I did not know what to expect form a child who dealt with autism.  When people talk about them, they only talk about the worst and I, having no training besides You Tube, did not know that there was a long spectrum of autism and children ranged from one end to the next.   We walked out and around the corner.  I told her that I understood why fire alarms could be annoying.  They are loud and they catch you off guard.  She said that she did not like them and I said that I didn’t like them either.  A student walked pass and asked me if we would have football practice as she was uncertain because of the rain that was to come.  Outside of the window in the grass we could see a flock of geese walking over the football practice field.  I told her that the birds were not concerned for the rain and we should not be either.  She said that the birds did not have to sit on a wet bench – a good point.  “But the birds do not have towels to wipe the wet benches.” I said.   She understood that excuses would not work so then she walked away.  The conversation about birds and geese became a distraction for Jessica and she walked to the window and we had a conversation about birds.  Eight minutes passed and I changed the conversation to the writing assignment in English.  I asked her which of the three prompts she wrote about.  This led me to without notice transition her back to class. 

What I expected from a tantrum was loud and chaotic moans or screams.  I imagined Jessica holding her hands over her ears and walking in circles.  I thought that if anyone touched her, she might hit them or violently attack them.   The YouTube videos taught me to anticipate tantrums and remove the child from crowds to a small and contained area.  That was all I really knew at that time.  I thought it was best to simply try to use as much preventive measures as possible.  This later came to bight me in the rear as I learned that Jessica was more of a teenage girl than some space alien who had some strange mental issue.  It is too bad that for my job, there was no training or any concern from one person who believed that it was important to train a person who would spend more time with a student dealing with autism than her parents.    

A Teacher's Aide's Journal #9

      The school year was only in the first three days and I could already see the signs of disaster:  A math teacher who will only teach for a short time before joining the administration team, a new teacher to replace him with no training, an English teacher who uses no teaching strategy, and a series of idle threats by the administration.   Looking at all of this, I had serious doubts that we would see very little improvements if any at all.  

Math

     The students were introduced to the process of the learning protocol that required them to use the technology of the Promethean board with their workbook, and discuss possible answers in their groups.  They worked on Fibonacci sequence as a way to learn inductive reasoning.  The process was impressive in the way it incorporated the technology to provide visual aids for geometry along with practical uses that include showing a bridge that used arcs, parallels, perpendicular lines, angles and bisectors.  I thought it was a good way to teach definitions in a way that is suitable for different learning styles.  Near the end of class a student named Africa entered tardy so naturally she had no clue what was going on.  She sat in the back of the class and squinted to see the Promethean board.  The Promethean board is also called a smart board.  The school has them spread out through the building in various classrooms but not all of them. In Jessica’s classes, there were three classrooms without them and three with them. She has seven periods including lunch.  The smart board is connected to the teacher’s PC and allows whatever is on the computer to synchronize with the smart board screen.   With the use of a special pencil, the teacher can draw or write on the smart board and at the same time, operate the computer.  Of course technology means nothing if a student is late and has no glasses.  I told Mr. Carter that Africa did not have her glasses on and she had trouble seeing the board.  He thanked me for the insight and told me to feel free to share anything that I noticed regarding students who may have problems with this program.

      I learned then that the math program was part of a program that the school purchased called Agile Mind.  It was something that Mr. Carter advocated for two years ago when he was the department chair for math.  He thought it would help raise math scores in the district, and although he was removed from the campaign for it, he was now finally able to see it come into fruition.   On the purchase of the math program it appears that the school did not plan or pay for training of the teachers and Mr. Carter said that he was the only one who was trained.  The irony in all of this is that he had also applied to become a student disciplinary dean and was recently approved by the school board and the finance committee.  He had hoped that he would start the school year as the disciplinary dean but for whatever reason, he did not and a new teacher was not hired to take his place.    He seemed comfortable with the program and had what appeared to be a definite strategy in teaching it and familiarizing the students to the concept.  He repeated often that he was not there to teach them, but that he was just a facilitator, and that it was up to the students themselves to learn through inquiry as opposed to traditional regurgitation of material.

Assembly

      We had an assembly during second period but before we were dismissed to attend, Ms. Martinez informed Jessica that she did well enough on the placement exam to be moved to the Spanish 2 class.  Jessica was a bit nervous about this because although she is Mexican, and her mother is an immigrant who speaks very little English, she speaks very little Spanish and claims that Spanish is her second language.    When we arrived at the assembly, we learned that it was only for sophomore students.  It was held in the field house where the school team played basketball.  At the assembly, the counselors introduced themselves and explained to the students that they had various resources such as a study table in the library and the career center.  They explained why some sophomores were still classified as freshman.  Apparently there were over 100 students who did not move from freshman status to sophomore status, even with summer school as an option.  The counselors gave them threats about what would happen when they are seniors if they did not study and get their graduation credits.  Next, the disciplinary dean came to the podium and went over the progressive discipline policy and the rules that she “will not waver” in enforcing.  Those rules were the dress code, rules relating to attendance, cell phone use, fighting, and bad language.  I learned then that second period was divided in half and that the junior class was to come into the gymnasium and have a similar meeting.   So after all of the threats were done, we were told to return to class for the remainder of second period.  I leaned that the problem with this schedule was that Jessica’s new class was made juniors and seniors.  She was one of two sophomores in that Spanish class.  This left the teacher in a bad position because she could not do anything in terms of teaching as half of her class was missing during the second half of the class. 

Looking back in hind sight, the threats meant nothing to the students.  In the end, the students were the victors being that they endured the first ten weeks of harsh rule by the disciplinary deans.  After those ten weeks, the discipline system broke down and things were back to the way they were.  The dean’s promise that she would not waver fell short.  I guess the lesson in this is that students will push the envelope as long and as far as they can.  Idle threats are just that … Idle. 

English Class

      I felt very disappointed in the English teacher this day.  She gave as an assignment for the students to identify the plot of the story. They read over a short story that was about 2 and one half pages long.  It took them 13 minutes to read it.  I noticed that seven students did not read at all.  Instead they put their heads down on the desk. I was also disappointed in that and also noticed that six of the seven sleeping students were African American.  As I sat in the back of the class, I could not help but to notice that the teacher had not taken time out to discuss the conflict or the inciting incident which separates the exposition from the rising action.  In my opinion this is a crucial point to make in a story, as there can be no story without a conflict.   I doubted that the students would ever understand what they are supposed to do or if they will show mastery of the assignment.  I began to think that she assumed the students already knew these things and she just used this assignment for a review.  If that was so, she was painfully wrong.  They did not know, and when I took a look at one of my football player’s paper, I saw that he wrote virtually nothing on his paper.  It was as I had anticipated; he did not identify or show mastery of understanding the beginning and the end of the rising action nor was he able to identify the conflict and climax.