Mr. J works across the hall. He, like me, arrived midyear and was thrown into a classroom without a minute and a half of prep. “Do High-Point (Textbook) Level A” was all the instruction he got.
OK, great, where do I pick up the books?
We don’t have any.
Well then how am I supposed to teach it?
First day. Fewer questions.
Mr. J created his own program. He taught chess one day a week. Taught a bit of Shakespeare, from dumbed down synopsizes and films starring Leonardo Dicaprio. And he also taught ten minutes a day of High Point level A from the one textbook he was able to find.
My second week, he caught me walking into my classroom with a cart full of Level B textbooks and asked where I got them. “The librarian has them.” “When I asked to check for level A, she told me to fuck off.”
The librarian has a bad side and it seems to come out most when you ask to check out textbooks. She doesn’t like teachers taking out textbooks. Then she has to collect them all at the end of the year and code and stock them. And let’s face, that’s a headache she just don’t need. So if you want a class set of textbooks you have to prove to her that you’re worthy. I’m batting about 33% for texts I’ve requested. I hear that’s pretty darn high.
2 comments:
Five words: "Mark Harmon in Summer School"
I really appreciate the opportunity to read this "report from the front lines." It is something like reading a news report from a journalist embedded with the army in Iraq. I admire your idealism and courage and imagine that burn out is a real threat. Keep up the good work -- both with your students and writing about it for the rest of us.
Good luck.
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