January 7, 2011
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The Daily News1 It’s Frideeeeeeeeee!!!2 GREAT week at school.
3 Well, with the exception of one bump in the road yesterday.
4 After having worked four long days on grading and planning before coming back, I went into arguably the toughest week of the year totally on point.
5 YOU know that re-entry after Christmas is anatomically unsound, and akin to heroin withdrawal mixed with cheap booze.
6 And that’s if you just had desserts and jollies.
7 As a rather seasoned veteran of the Christmas wars, I planned for this shipwreck, and as a result, was absolutely all over the entire week.
8 Except yesterday. I did these Socratic seminars, which stemmed from some of my recent post-grad units. To keep it short, it is a teaching method where rather than having students lug books to school, turn to pages 619 and 629, and answer all the questions at the end of two chapters, I have the students get in groups, make T-charts and bullets, share one another’s work, and then come back as a group with scribes writing results on the board.
9 End result?
10 Rather than giving the four brightest students glimmering grades, the entire class teaches, the results go up on the board; they all learn more than they would have by giving half-assed answers to get some boring assignment done, and I grade T-charts and bullets. And they don’t need some sage-on-the stage standing behind a podium and boring the bejeezus out of them.
11 Worked like a miracle for my morning classes. While they were in groups, I played this incredible new-age Greek music on You Tube, and the kids got spirited, laughing, and by-and-large enjoyed the entire session.
12 But when my class before lunch did it, I dropped the ball. Rather than walking around and proctoring the groups, I thought I could write a vocab test in that brief fifteen minutes.
13 <basketball buzzer FAIL>
14 Within two minutes, out came the cards, the gambling, the screwing around, and the mischievous relaxations that the students will do if you let your guard down.
15 I wanted to finish writing the test though, because I was starved, and needed to get out during my prep period. I also wanted to keep after school open because I was going to meet a friend after school.
16 Long story, but when I brought the class back for the general session, I slightly chided the students for wasting time. I also publicly blamed myself as well for not stopping the behaviors the second they started. I then began the learning portion.
17 Not only did they not have notes, when I asked for a couple of whiteboard scribes, absolutely NOBODY stepped up and volunteered. The entire thing felt almost like a mockery of the technique that worked amazingly well in all my other classes.
18 I didn’t take it personally, but at this point, there was only about fifteen minutes left to get the learning there, and I could see that it was going to be rushed and ridiculous.
19 I nodded my head, put down my pencil, and walked out of the room.
20 I wasn’t trying to be passively aggressive, because I’m pretty beyond insecurities and playing out personal dramas. Quite ineffective.
21 I just needed to see a bird.
22 Seriously.
23 I literally needed to look up in the sky and see a bird, and then go back into the room and deal with the slight failure with professionalism, aplomb, and dignity.
24 I wasn’t mad at all, just disappointed that they didn’t understand what is now a standard teaching technique with proven results. I’m sure they thought I was being emo or whatever.
25 Uh, no? I’ve done this for too long to allow personal insecurities to move into my lessons. I keep both WAY separate now. Plus I don’t have very many personal insecurities anyway.
26 What the heck; I’m just happy to still be walkin’ around.
27 So when I got back in the room, it was really quiet, which I knew ahead of time, and two student scribes stood at the board. I heard a voice say, “We have two scribes, Mr. Harrington.”
28 I looked at the good kids at the board, and then at the class and said, “It’s not about the scribes. You know that and I know that. It’s about mockery, and not taking what I asked seriously. It’s about playing cards when you’re supposed to be on task. It’s about me not calling you on it. I don’t want to get mad, because I think it all ultimately is on my own classroom management. But we lost some important learning, and I’d like to get whatever we can back in the next ten minutes.”
29 That was about it. The majority of the class got it, but there are a few of my “intellectuals” who were sort of harrumphing and giving me looks that I’ve suffered too many times already.
30 That attitude might have worked as recently as six years ago, but not any longer. I rarely question anything I have done anymore, because I know my job pretty darned well. I admitted a lowered guard in class-management, didn’t throw guilt out there, took the blame, moved on with the lesson, and lost almost nothing.
31 And the rest of the day it all worked wonderfully.
32 And I’m going in today as the guy in charge. You fumble the ball in games, but if I had to measure a football score for yesterday, I’d still feel I won the day 28-0. It was an electric day in almost all my other classes. Before we go into Socratic Seminars, I play this madly wonderful new age Greek music, tell the students that they need to give me four quotations before they can pass through the portal to knowledge and wisdom, give them one minute to get the quotes, and then share the quotations with the class.
33 It’s ALWAYS a gas, and they learn to listen and to speak, two California Department of Education Language Arts standards virtually ignored by the district.
34 So yesterday still rocked my world, and a LOT of learning went on.
35 Speaking of Football, Dept: So the Harbaugh circus continues with the Niners. Jim Harbaugh turned down the $8 million per year last-minute offer from Miami. Clearly he isn’t following the money. Hey, once you have a couple of million, you’re probably set for most of your life. So evidently, the media circus of rumors and buffoonery reports that Stanford is still interested. And Andrew Luck is staying, which is pretty cool, albeit dumb.
36 Does he want to get a degree so that he could find work in his major?
37 Just kiddin’. Pretty sporting and graceful of him, shows a lot of integrity.
38 If I were Harbaugh, and both I and my wife enjoy the Bay Area, I would take the Niners’ offer of $6 million. The franchise has announced it wants to turn things around; Harbaugh has strong connections with Luck, and he is smart enough to know that it is pretty wise to strike when the iron is hot.
39 The Niners don’t need much; but the need something. They are also going to move to Santa Clara.
40 Sometimes the particles are everywhere, and fate needs to move where it needs to move.
41 For the Niners and Harbaugh, the stars are clearly lined up to change this storied franchise back to its glory.
42 So I still go with Harbaugh signing. Why would he have spent six hours at a meeting with Niner brass? They were probably already talking about where to take the franchise.
43 And so Miami sends a couple of goombahs with diamond rings in for a last-minute strong arm? Given the money and all, I wouldn’t have gone for it either.
44 The stars are in place, and we’ve suffered long enough.
45 We shall see; we shall see.
46 I still think the Niners will seal the deal before sunset today.
47 That’s the news.
48 Peace.
~H~
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