Interruptions

We are supposed to be educating our students. This is constantly impressed on the teachers. People are always poking around making sure we are working hard. They never seem to notice the simple things that get in the way. The class phone rang all afternoon. From 1-2 it rang at least 10 times. "Do you have paper X?" "Do you have file 13?" "Do you have the 9 missing minutes from the White House tapes?" "Could you send down your attendance again? It never arrived." "Early dismissal for Mohammed, Jugdish, Clayton, and Sydney." "Remember tomorrow is early lunch instead of the regular lunch." "Remember tomorrow is Phillies t-shirt day." Every time we got calmed down and rolling the telephone would ring or someone would knock on the door or an announcement would come over the P.A. system. Education? Where? Not happening here.

I read an exerpt from The Learning Gap about Japanese schools valuing the classroom teaching. According to the book, there are no announcements breaking the instruction in Japanese schools. That time is reserved for uninterrupted learning. What a concept?

Our students know what is valued and what isn't. They miss nothing. They see that teachers are treated with contempt by the administration and they learn that they can do it too. It's quite obvious the adminstration values things like walking in straight lines, arriving and leaving at certain times, and keeping quiet more than preserving instruction time. Everything is allowed to get in the way of instruction.

I think a lot about what is making this year so hard. I have made a lot of mistakes and continue to do so. I'm still in there pitching, though, and that means a lot. On my worst day I still want to do this job. Some of my troubles can be traced to the administration. I was hired 3 months before the 2004-05 school year began. I was told what grade I'd teach 4 days before school began. I was given my class list on the first day of school. I saw my room for the first time 3 days before school began. Our school created a school-wide discipline plan on the afternoon of the day before school started. That was the last I heard of that document. No policy was ever put into place and this is a persistently dangerous school. We are one of the most dangerous schools in one of the biggest districts in the country and there is no discipline policy. Do you know how much easier it would have been if I could have introduced myself to my students before school started? If I knew my intended grade I could have bought a lot more stuff to prepare my room. If I could have seen my room I could have figured out what it needed to make it a wonderful learning environment. If we had a discipline plan the kids would have known what to expect if they got out of line. I would have known exactly what to do with them when they did.

I'm not the most organized person but I am responsible and want to do a good job. This is my life. I begged for this information for 3 months and was put off every time. I bear responsibility for my job performance (Accountablility in the parlance of George Bush and NCLB) but damn it couldn't I get a little somethin' somethin'? I'm still paying for this in spades. A new teacher feels it everywhere but the ability to establish a relationship before the start of school would really have helped me.

Classroom management always gets short shrift. I've yet to have a comprehensive class on this subject and it is the most important one there is in a school like ours. "Just get everything organized and the class will manage itself." Ok. Sure. Tell that to the entire class as they chant "kick his ass, f&*% him up" as a girl sits on a boy's chest and slams his head on the floor like a basketball. It's like something out of Dante. It really is.