So!
(Thing One) My students stole my iPhone yesterday. Specifically, a student in my 6th period class who lives in South Philly stole my iPhone. I know because the phone went missing during 6th period, and I used the GPS tracking device and watched it travel down the trolley line, across town to Broad street, down the Broad St. line and then into a neighborhood before the smart little thief turned the phone off and so I lost track of it. I think it may be gone for good. It hasn’t turned back on yet, which makes me think whoever took it has either a) wised up to the tracking device or b) already had it jailbroken and wiped.
I was REALLY angry yesterday, and went out and blew off some steam with teacher friends at dinner, but I think I have a solid take-away on the matter: No punishment or consequence that I could possibly dream up will ever be worse than what karma has in store for the culprit. Not just karma, but life in Philadelphia. The possible suspects all have low reading and math levels, and high levels of disrespect, attitude, poverty, and emotional problems. As much as I don’t relish these facts . . . they are still facts, and they help me to not be angry at my students.
(Thing Two) A student SERIOUSLY offered to sell food stamps to one of my co-workers yesterday, at half-price.
(Thing Three) Thing three is amazing. Thing three is the reason I had a good day today, despite the betrayal of personal property theft. Thing three is . . . *drumroll* . . . PEER EDITING!! Anyone who teaches high schoolers or middle schoolers in a city will tell you that they hate working together. They kvetch, and they moan, and they absolutely refuse to move to sit with their partners, and then IF you find a way to get them into groups, they sit silently and complete work without collaborating.
But today was magical!! It was the first time we tried peer editing in pairs – switching papers, and then giving compliments, constructive criticisms, and then actual corrections. I made it very structured, with timed sections for each type of conversation, and I modeled and provided examples of each beforehand. There were NO complaints about the partners, which is a miracle in and of itself. They were a little slow to get started, but once I said “I should hear lots of voices right now,” they got into it!! I heard a student, AY, say to another student, ST,
“Yeah, maybe you should add more details to this part about the corner store. Like what it look like. Ain’t that what [Miss SBT] always says to add?”
Ladies and gentlemen, I tell you, my heart was singing.
And I still am reserving a small smackerel of hope for my poor little phone.
<3 SBT
aj
March 3, 2011
i’m so sorry for your loss. that really sucks! what about some guilt…occasionally, ok, sometimes,ok rarely it might work. can you get the other students on your side?~~~maybeee?
do you ever see those videos of suburban schools where the kids sit and do all they are supposed to in those situations and say to your collegue, “yea, right, like that would ever happen in my class.” well, i’m glad to see that it happened in your class~congrats!!!!