Gladly Would I Teach

When I tell people that I teach high school seniors, they often respond by rolling their eyes or by telling me that they could never teach seventeen and eighteen year olds. I always laugh and state, “There the easiest group to teach because they already know everything!”

It’s a great line, but it is far from the truth. No, they don’t know everything, and few of them behave as if they do. In fact, it is fascinating to teach high school seniors who are about to step out into the “real world.” They are so inquisitive about what will happen next, and they usually realize that today is the last chance they have to prepare for that huge step into college.

Research papers are due Wednesday, and we spent part of the class period going around the circle so students could tell the topics for their papers. Students often mentioned a topic that was unclear, and I tried to help them clarify the focus of their papers. Other students selected topics that were too broad, and I encouraged them to narrow their focus so their papers would be more informative. Most students were appreciative of my help, and I have no doubt that they will take my advice and write better papers.

However, there is always at least one student who rejects suggestions. When I told one student today that her topic was too broad, she immediately challenged me and told me that she had already done the research and the topic was not too broad. I tried to gently explain to her how she could write a better paper by narrowing the topic to something more manageable for a short (4-5 page) research paper.

Much to my surprise, she rejected every suggestion I offered, and all I could do was smile and move on to the next student.

I wanted to caution her about the importance of listening to a teacher’s suggestions. I wanted to reminded her that after having taught and graded the research paper for almost twice as long as she has lived that maybe I might know a thing or two about research papers.

Instead, I smiled and moved on to the next student who was much more receptive to my ideas. After more than three decades in the classroom, I know that some students have to learn the hard way.

I just hope she learns before she turns in the final paper on Wednesday!

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

A few weeks ago I wrote about an explosion of theft I experienced years ago in another school.

Watch Your Pocketbook

I thought of those terrible days when I walked into my classroom this morning. As I placed my satchel on my desk, I saw my pocketbook on my chair, right where I had left it the previous afternoon. Indicative of how worn out I am in these days when we’re sucking wind and awaiting spring break, I left school yesterday without my purse and never realized it until I found it this morning.

Years ago when I saw so many thefts of purses, I started leaving my pocketbook locked in my car each day. I continued that practice for years – never bringing my purse into the building until just recently, just in the last year.

As I looked at the pocketbook this morning, I immediately worried about stolen credit cards, stolen money, stolen identity and all of those fears we all have. I had no one to blame but myself. Much to my delight, when I opened the purse, all of my credit cards and money were still there, right where I had left them the previous day.

Sometimes I do really dumb things.

Usually, the good Lord takes care of me when I do dumb things!

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

I strongly believe that good teachers are highly organized and well prepared for class, and maybe that’s why it is stressful to me when school leaders are disorganized. This week we have an adjusted schedule for Monday through Thursday so our juniors can complete their graduation tests, the tests over math, English, science, and social studies that they must pass in order to receive diplomas next year. Even though I detest the change in schedule (two hours in first period, followed by 40 minutes in second period), I understand why we need to adjust the schedule.

We have known about the test and the schedule change for several weeks, and we were prepared.

Late Friday afternoon, however, we received an email that our sophomores would also be taking a practice test on Tuesday and Thursday during the long test period.

We found out on Friday afternoon after the students had gone home!

Friday afternoon!

Did administrators decide on Friday to make sophomores take the test? Surely not!  I have no idea why we were not told previously.

In homeroom today, I apologized to the kids for telling them so late and assured them that their performance on the test on Tuesday and Thursday would let us see if they would benefit from tutoring or extra help in preparation for next year’s graduation tests. The kids were initially upset that they had not been told  about the test, but they are good kids and took the information well.

Everything went well and I reviewed with then where they need to sit tomorrow and Thursday when they take their tests.  They were happy when they left homeroom this morning.

Two hours later I received a revised plan for sophomore testing. Tomorrow I have to tell the kids that the tests will be given on Tuesday and Wednesday instead of Thursday!

Disorganization drives me crazy, but I suspect it bothers students even more.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

Yesterday I checked my email early in the morning and discovered an email from a parent who asked me to reconsider only giving her son half credit for a late quiz he had made up the previous day. The email initially angered me, and I spewed, “You have to be kidding me,” as I sat in my empty classroom at 6:30.

I calmed down and reread the email where the parent expressed her concern that her son’s grade was so low because he was juggling so many extra-curricular activities and had a valid reason for not taking the test a few days before as he should have.

Years ago when communication with parents was limited to telephone conversations, teachers were often blindsided with such requests and forced to respond immediately. Oh, how I hated those phone calls where parents expressed anger or concern or fears about their child’s grade. I often felt trapped.

E-mail is so much easier because we have time to calm down and think about what we need or want to say.

I counted to ten yesterday morning and then started my e-mail:

Dear Mrs. “Jones,”

Do you realize that “Sonny” took the quiz three WEEKS late? Do you realize that even with all of the extra time to study, he still failed the quiz before I deducted points for his tardiness?”

A very concerned and frustrated parent responded several hours later and told me that she had no idea that her son had been that tardy nor did she know that he had failed it. The email ended with her expressing how upset she was with her son and how she and her husband would deal with Sonny that night. This morning I received a follow-up email to ask me to notify her if I didn’t see an improvement.

I definitely saw an improvement today!

After a zillion years in the classroom, I’ve learned to count to ten and calm down when parents intervene and jump to their children’s defense. Sometimes they don’t know the whole story. Once they learn everything they need to know, most parents are supportive of teachers. While some parents want extra privileges for their children, those parents are rare. Instead, they want what’s best for their children – the same thing that I want.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

I met with a teacher this afternoon who expressed her unhappiness about her job. She doesn’t like her school, her administration, or her students. She wants a new job and is frustrated because so few teaching jobs are open. Since Georgia has suffered from a teacher shortage for close to two decades, it’s hard to reconcile the fact that there are no openings for teachers.

As I drove home this afternoon, I kept thinking about how frustrating it must be to awaken every morning and prepare for a job I hate. What must it be like to walk inside a school I detest or to face children I do not like?

I’m blessed to teach in an outstanding school where I teach remarkable students. Whereas a few of them frustrate me periodically, I suspect I also frustrate a few of them as well. For the most part, however, we stick together. I take care of them and they take care of me. My job isn’t perfect, but I don’t know anyone who has a perfect job. With the exception of one year over a decade ago, I have always loved my job, regardless of where I taught. I have taught “challenging” students who were some of the most interesting kids I have ever met. I have taught in old schools with little money and poor facilities, but somehow we always obtained whatever we needed to help kids. I’ve worked with exasperating administrators, but we always found a way to laugh about their petty requirements.

Particularly in such dire economic times when few jobs are available, I awaken every morning and thank the good Lord that I have a job when so many people do not. I have always found that my attitude improves when I learn to be grateful for what I have, and I sincerely hope that’s one of those life lessons that I pass on to my students. Sometimes when I start to feel depressed or frustrated, I stop and count my blessings and realize just how fortunate I am.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

Having never had children, I have always respected young teachers who have to juggle the needs of their own children while they also struggle to help their students. How does a teacher with toddlers and babies find the energy and time to work all day at school and then go home and feed, engage, bathe, teach, and put their own children to bed? I suspect the answer is something along the lines of parents always find the way when you have no choice.

I’m not sure I could have done it twenty years ago, and I know for a fact I couldn’t do it today.

I’ve been thinking about this for the last couple of weeks as I met with a realtor and put my house up for sale. First I had to complete all the deep cleaning; then I had to get a plumber to install a new hot water heater. Next came the closets I had to organize and the trips to Goodwill to donate items I’ve coveted way too long. Then I had to call the plumber back to deal with a faulty new hot water heater. Meeting with the realtor and listing the house took several hours out of my Saturday morning. By Monday the house had been advertised and a bright yellow and green for sale sign beckoned visitors.

A day after I breathed a sigh of relief, the rains came and came again, and returned for a third day. I haven’t seen this much rain in Georgia since the early 1990s. My very dry basement that experienced its first leak in the fall with the heavy rains had been sealed back in October and remained dry throughout the winter.

Until last week.

The water seeped into the basement once again, and two days and $450 later I have a new catch basin outside and the guarantee that the basement won’t leak.

Then a wayward bird flew into my nice clean house . . . until my cat caught him, and I spent another hour of cleaning.

Finally, today I’m caught up! I came home with no papers to grade and planned to spend a night of leisure until the realtor called to tell me a caravan of local realtors will be visiting my house TOMORROW.

Back to the store to buy doughnuts and juice for the visitors.

Back to cleaning.

Back to stress and lack of sleep.

I can’t imagine what it must be like to deal with a child. I have my hands full with a house that doesn’t complain, doesn’t whine, doesn’t cry, doesn’t demand, doesn’t eat, and doesn’t need me to rock it to sleep, but I’m still exhausted.

Now, if you are interested in buying a house amid hundreds of trees in the mountains of North Georgia, I know where you can get a really good deal!

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

Students learn to write through writing. It’s a simple concept. If we want students to write well, they need lots of practice. Mondays are writing days in my AP English course. In addition to outside writing assignments, students write a 40-minute timed writing in my class each week. I am amazed at how much my students improve during the semester.

“You’ll hate me on Mondays,” I warn them, but you’ll thank me one day . . . years from now.

Since I know that students will be absent occasionally or will be worried about tests in other classes or will just go blank when they see the assignment, at the beginning of the semester, I give each student 2 free passes. They are allowed to pass in a pass whenever they decide they do not want to write the paper.

Today, three weeks before spring break, many students decided they just didn’t have the energy to write, particularly when they discovered that the writing assignment from the 2003 AP test was about BIRDS.

While students were writing during first period, a flock (or gaggle or skein) of geese flew overhead and made us laugh.

Although I am often tempted to create a couple of free passes for myself, I haven’t yet. How relieved I would be to collect 70 papers and then return them ungraded and say, “Today I’m using one of my free passes.”

Tempting!

Today I might as well have used a free pass. I only had 12 papers from first period, 8 papers from second period, and 17 papers from 3rd period.

It’s been an easy night!

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

After my sermon to seniors yesterday about the evils of senioritis, another problem surfaced today. With all of the budget cuts in Georgia, state colleges and universities may have to make drastic reductions in the courses they offer and the people they employ. As in most states, we are experiencing troubling times, and I didn’t know just how worried some of my students are until today.

Last week The University of Georgia, a popular school for many of my students, announced that if the proposed state budget is approved, UGA will have to make major cuts, including retracting the admissions offers they have already extended to 500 freshmen!

What do you do if you are 18 years old and you have worked hard for years in order to win acceptance into UGA and then you discover there is a chance that your acceptance will be revoked?

What do you do if you are 18 years old and NOT accepted in the first round of admissions at UGA and you find out they may not admit additional students?

As I tried to ease the worries of many of my students, all I could do was emphasize that other than voicing our concerns or protesting budget cuts, we have little control over the legislature; we only have control over ourselves and what we do. “Study hard, do your best work, and prepare for college,” I cautioned, “and you should be just fine.”

I don’t think UGA will cut 500 students they have already admitted into the freshman class.

I hope I am right. My students are much too young to have to endure such troubles even if some of them are already coasting until spring break.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

Wikipedia is one of the few sources that tackles the definition of senioritis:

The main symptoms of senioritis include chronic procrastination, lack of motivation, a drop in academic performance, and “coasting,” which is the act of going through classes with very little concentration or application of intent. This usually happens in the last year of high school, college or graduate school. One of the most notable symptoms of senioritis, is that all attempts by educators to curb senioritis tend to actually increase senioritic symptoms. High school seniors experiencing senioritis after admittance to college are fed up with high school; as they see it, they have achieved high school’s goal of getting into college and don’t understand why they are still expected to work.

Halfway through the semester, many of my seniors are suffering from senioritis. The quality of their work is declining; they are counting the days until spring break and until graduation; a couple have been in In School Suspension; three are suspended; and several start nodding off each class period.

Today I delivered my annual Senioritis Speech and warned students that if they coast until graduation, they may discover that colleges that have already accepted them into the freshman class may indeed rescind that offer. I challenged them, “Read the fine print in that college acceptance letter and see what it says about ‘pending acceptance or review of final transcript.’”

I have good kids and I want them to enjoy the end of their high school careers; I just want them to hang in there a few more weeks and save the coasting until May. By then, we should have a little more time to play and celebrate their achievements.

As I spoke with the kids today, I told them about a parent who exploded at me about a decade ago when her daughter failed my class and did not graduate. The mother admitted that the student had been failing the entire semester and that I had phoned her to warn her that her daughter was in danger of failing. In the end when the child failed, however, the mother blamed me. When I asked why she thought it was my fault that her daughter had failed, she replied, “You were too nice to her. Since you were so sweet, she didn’t think you would actually fail her!”

Interesting logic!

I now make it a point to tell seniors, “I may love you and I may laugh with you, but if you don’t meet the requirements of the class, I will indeed fail you and keep you back with me another year where I will love you and laugh with you for another year!”

I think there is a special place in Heaven for teachers who work with high school seniors during the spring.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott

Despite budget problems, my district next year will adopt new high school English textbooks. For the past five – six years, I have used The Norton Reader for AP English Language, and I love it. The book is filled with a variety of essays on different topics and with different writing styles. Since the textbook is a college textbook and only available in paperback, our poor books are heavily worn, and many of them are falling apart. I hoped that we would be able to adopt the new edition for next year. The new edition didn’t even make first cuts!  I don’t know why; we were never asked to contribute our opinions of the books we are now using.

I wanted the new Norton Reader, but since a brand new book designed specifically for AP English Language was available, I wasn’t worried because I knew the new book would be excellent, and I looked forward to taking a good look at it. Since this textbook is touted by AP English Language teachers for its thoroughness and its concentration on teaching AP English and also preparing students for college, I knew it would be a great book.

It isn’t The Norton Reader, but it is excellent, and I set it aside to read during the summer. I knew I would need to recreate many of my plans and assignments, but I was excited to implement the changes.

Yesterday I found out that the county textbook committee adopted a different textbook for AP English Language, a book that was not even available when I looked at the AP books. I flipped through it today and was so disappointed. Instead of a challenging college textbook, the book is a watered down college book that includes vocabulary sections and scores of reading comprehension questions that emphasize literal recall. Most of all, the book contains few of the rich essays that my classes enjoyed discussing in the past.

I’ll use the textbook because I have no choice, but at a time when everyone is encouraging teachers to increase the rigor of classes and to demand higher standards from our students and ourselves, I am perplexed that we would select a lower-level book. What a disappointment.

I’ll still spend part of my summer reading the new textbook. It certainly will not take nearly so much time since it is so simple, and I’ll use the new book in the fall.

Over in the corner of my room, however, I suspect I’ll find the room to store a class set of my beloved Norton Reader.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Edie Parrott