What a Difference a Year Can Make

With the start of Thanksgiving week upon us, I cannot help but be thankful for the wonderfully behaved group of students that I get to spend each day with. A lot of self-contained special education classrooms unfortunately struggle more with problem behaviors and classroom management, than solid instruction. I am fortunate enough to have a group of nine students who allow me to focus on their academic needs, rather than their classroom behaviors. Now that we have been in school for a few months, I can really see a difference in my students from September till now. Our independence, our drive, and our maturity have all began to help make this trip down Common Core lane much easier to navigate.

Thinking of my awesomely well-behaved class makes me think back to last Thanksgiving, when I was not feeling so thankful for my students. Since I teach a 4^th/5^th grade bridge class, I have the pleasure of looping with many of my students. Of my nine students, five of them were in my class last year as fourth graders, and were a whole different set of kids. One of them, who I will call Justin, was labeled ADHD in pre-school, something he has carried with him each year. Our assistant principal likes to refer to him as “a bull in a China shop.” Justin has always struggled with self-control, both physically, as well as mentally. He rushes through his work and his mind works way faster than his mouth is able to keep up with. Justin would bump into, trip over, and knock over everything and everyone in his path.  

When he started in my class in September of last year, however, Justin began exhibiting new behaviors, behaviors that were causing problems in the class. Justin became violent, would talk about how much he liked violence. Justin would refuse to do assignments or refuse to follow directions. He picked fights with the teachers and paraprofessionals everyday. His classmates, who had been with him since kindergarten, did not want to work with him because he would be mean and aggressive towards them.

Most disturbing of all was his obsession with hand pencil sharpeners. Justin would sharpen his pencils over and over again. He insisted on having incredibly sharp pencils and when he became frustrated with his work, he would stab himself with the pencils. He never broke skin, but the act was dangerous enough.  

Justin eventually made comments about wanting to kill himself, which lead to our school psychologist taking him to the hospital. Justin spent 10-days in the juvenile psychiatric ward, amongst teenagers who were suffering from mental illness and drug addictions. Justin came back to school in the beginning of December with a prescription for ADHD medication and a seemingly different attitude.

Justin spent the rest of the school year adjusting to the medication and working on his self-regulation. We had seen a difference, though there were still glimpses of his behaviors from earlier in the year. When he left in June, I just hoped his mother watched him over the summer and made sure he had positive activities to participate in. I spent the summer thinking about him, and hoping that he would start 5^th grade the way he ended 4^th grade.

When Justin walked into my classroom this September, Justin far exceeded my hopes and expectations for him. I could not have asked for a better-behaved student. Justin has literally become a role model for how to behave during class. He listens to lessons and participates. He works independently and takes pride in his work. He is working as a 5^th grade monitor in the lunchroom, helping the 1^st graders during lunch time. As a result of his awesome performance, he and some of the other 5^th grade monitors are allowed to walk down to the lunchroom alone, something that would never have been allowed last year.

Justin’s transformation shows what a difference a year can make. He has helped set the tone of our classroom, making it a positive learning environment where the children feel safe. This Thanksgiving I am thankful that I am able to have Justin in my class again. I am thankful that he is in such a good place with himself. I am thankful that he has begun to see the value of school and trust his teachers. Most of all, I am thankful for such an awesome group of students to spend my days with.

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Teach

Making Collocation Work in NYC Schools

A bunch of my coworkers and I decided to end our week of school with some libations and seafood this past Friday. Anyone who has ever been in a bar with a group of teachers during happy hour has probably overheard the loud debrief of the week full of stories about odd student questions and frustrating behavior problems. We were no exception this week.

Towards the end of the evening a smaller group of us began to talk about collocation. A former colleague was present and shared her experience in her new school, a public school, which until this year had shared its space with a charter school. She described the more obvious differences between the two schools, such as classroom appearances and materials, explaining that each of their classes had interactive whiteboards, while only a small handful of classes in her school had them installed in the classroom. We all expressed frustration that our own schools did not have the financial means to provide each classroom with such new materials, but understood that charter schools have the private funding that pays for such items.

The conversation then shifted towards the relationship between the two schools. My friend said that the teachers at the charter school were incredibly cold to her school and that they did not communicate, nor work together in any way. She described one particular experience in which she was holding the door open for the teachers from the other school and the group walked past her without thanking her or even acknowledging her. Now, I realize that this behavior could easily be chalked up to being incredibly enthralled in the conversation they were having, or even simply poor manners. I am by no means suggesting that all teachers who work at charter schools are rude people.  This was simply a concrete example that my friend could provide to show the divided relationships between the two schools within her building.

My immediate reaction was to think of my own building, in which we are collocated with a District 75 special needs program. They occupy the top floor of the building, while my school has the other three floors. The basement level, with the gym, auditorium, and cafeteria is shared space. We are both public schools within the New York City Department of Education; yet, I have noticed similar experiences to the relationship gap described by my friend.

I would like to think we are slightly more cordial in our building. We smile at one another when passing in the halls, and everyone holds the door for each other. But beyond common courtesy, there is not a relationship that transcends the two schools. As a self-contained special education teacher, I want to talk to the teachers upstairs. They are all special ed teachers and I know they could provide me and my colleagues with an immense amount of ideas for how to more effectively educate our students. It seems, though, that an imaginary boundary has been placed between us and we are all too scared to try to cross it.

Despite the difference between our students (most of the students in the District 75 school are on alternate assessment track while our students are all state assessment track), the teachers act as if we are competing. It is almost as if we share our ideas and share our materials and share our space better, we think our students may not be as successful. Let’s rethink that: if we share our ideas and share our materials and share our space better, than ALL of our students WILL be successful.

Collocation of different schools means that there are more great ideas floating around one building. How can we share those ideas? If you work in a building that is collocated with another school(s) and you do have great relationships, what has your school done to foster that? What has worked and what has not?

--Teach

Start of a New School Year

This is my third weekend of the 2013-2014 school year and I am using my two days away from the building to start this blog. I started teaching 6 years ago and have told myself every year that I would write a blog that is both a reflection of my classroom and my teaching, as well as a place to engage others in the most relevant topics in education. Perhaps it took 5 years for me to find the time to start such a project or perhaps it took such a school year to find the inspiration to open the dialogue here in New York City.

For those of you unfamiliar with New York City’s education system, this year marks the start of the full implementation of the Common Core State Standards and the testing based on them, as well as a brand new teacher evaluation system, Advance, which heavily relies on student assessments to rate teachers. Additionally, New Yorkers will be heading to the polls in November to elect a new mayor after 12 years with Michael Bloomberg as the head of the education system. There are a lot of changes being made at once and the stakes are high for teachers.

Please stop by Hey, Teach! to learn more about those changes and to hear how one Brooklyn teacher is adjusting to all of it.

-Teach