I have an IEP to work on...but I thought I'd share about a really great day in my little special education classroom and my little inner city public middle school here in Kansas City:):)...
We have a quiz that we're reviewing for, right now, in my 1st and 2nd hour math class...
I've told the kids that we'll review as long as they like, to reinforce a work ethic indendent of how well they do on the quiz...but also reinforcing that the more they work and practice, the better they do (many of my kids have really been resisting doing any work, up until this point...so this is a big deal that they are so willing and prepared to do work in class:):)...
We've been practicing with math relays where the kids choose teams and compete against each other using our warm-up problems to practice...
And the kids were just on fire today...it was amazing...
I have one girl...who was so shy when I first met her...and who is not only out of her shell...but she is my smartest, most active, most engaged, most confident student...even as she's gotten so much more confident socially, navigating between teacher expectations and peer expectations, which are often at odds...
And all of my kids...even my typically worst behaved kids...were engaged today and Friday...even students who teachers said they had very little hope for, academically...
I have one girl who every teacher I'd talked to sounded like they had given up on her...and she is doing something that she wasn't doing in any of her other classes...she's trying...she's working...and she's getting better, as a consequence:):)...
The big deal, though, is that all of my students are involved in our little math relays, right now...I've sent one student out of my class in two weeks...and even then, I skipped a procedure that I probably should have taken that would have kept him in my class for that day...just in a safe seat, which is a consequence that keeps him in the classroom...
Noone's getting sent out, as a rule...and the kids are doing the work...
And they're having fun:):):)...
They're enjoying it:):):)...
It's so exciting to see them get so excited about math:):):)...
And I'm just so goddamn proud of all of them:):):)...
Either tomorrow or the next day, likely, we will take this quiz...
They are steadily improving, generally, on their quizzes (I do have one student who went from an A last quarter, decided to blow off the class for awhile this quarter, and thus a D on her progress report, to a C or B with potential for an A on this next grade card...and even that was, generally, progress, since it involved her freely committing herself to the class and school and getting over the attitude that math and school didn't matter)...
And after this last week and today...I expect much better performance on this next quiz...
The biggest deal of all, though, is that many if not most of these kids are ones that everyone has told me that they couldn't do the work...because they had given up on them, not because the kids couldn't do it...
And I just wouldn't give up on these kids...
And they are responding to the expectation to achieve...
And I'm so goddamn proud of them...
For next year, I have so much planned (assuming my contract is renewed)...more formal math relays, where they would compete against other schools...a field trip to various workplaces where adults can talk with the kids about why education matters...looking into the Urban Debate League here in Kansas City to involve them early in debate competition and research...possibly taking on a newspaper extra duty to get my kids involved in academic extracurriculars (I've advised many of them to do debate, forensics, drama, etc. for similar reasons)...
But for now...I'm just really proud of my kids...
That they're taking school seriously...
Some of them for the first time in a long time...
It's very exciting...
And I'm really proud of them...
And I hope that after this quiz...
They'll have something to be proud of, themselves...
And really begin to understand why earning your way through life...is so much more satisfying than bullshitting your way through life...
The irony being that, at some level, bullshitting is what so many of the adults in their lives -- all of us -- do every day...
But good people want to earn it, I think, even if they are bullshitting...
And our little special education math class is raising the bar for all of us to earn it...for real...
Have a great week, everyone:):)...
Love,
Ben
