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Neo_Geo
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Name: Geoffrey
State: New York
Metro: Queens
Birthday: 1/25/1982
Expertise: University of California, Irvine - B.S. Aerospace EngineeringSt. John's University, New York - Masters in EducationNYC Teaching Fellow
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
5/18/2003
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| check here for my second year of teaching
http://rounddeux.blogspot.com/
shake and bake! | | |
| I realize now that my viewpoint on education and progressive learning has almost entire dissipated into the morass of frustration and stress that I've wallowed through this year. My idealism has been erased and has been replaced by survival strategies, hatred towards my students, and utter disgust at what we call our educational system.
My belief that a teacher is solely responsible for the future of a young student has been deleted. I've come to realize that, as my supervisor told me, behavioral and attitudinal problems that a child has can only be solved in the home. As bad as it sounds, there is no educational system or teaching philosophy that can prevent a student to drop out of high school if that student doesn't come to an educational institution with a structured foundation from the home.
I used to believe that child abuse, whether for mere pleasure or for disciplinary reasons, was wrong and unjust. But now I can rightfully say that sometimes a child just needs a good beating; and it should be a good beating.
The whole, "ending social promotion" that you hear about from the mayor of NYC is such a facade that is there merely to boost the political points of politicians. All a student has to do to pass a grade level without, "social promotion" is attend a SINGLE day of summer school. A student can also be promoted to high school if he or she has good attendance, even if he or she failed all of his/her courses. A student doesn't have to pass all of the major subjects, just a few of them in order to guarantee passage into the next grade level.
I realize that there is no one-way to guarantee success for a school or for a student. The phenemenon that is education is difficult to solve and address because of all of the variables that are juggled both by students and teachers.
Nine more school days with my 8th graders. I just hope that I don't get hurt on the job because the behavior of the students in the hallways has led me to believe that these students are walking health hazards. (which some veteran teachers are also afraid of) | | |
| I've been counting down for the past two weeks to the day when my 8th grade students "graduate" from middle school. The students know its coming, I know its coming, and we mutually want to just get it over with.
This job is still as frustrating as ever, but I have to say that its been getting better. I'm not sure if I'm saying that because "summer is so close that I can smell it" (one of my coworkers) or because I've gotten accustomed to what these students respond to. As most schools, you would think that letters and phone calls home would happen sparingly. For my students, it happens on a daily basis and is one of the best ways to assert authority. These students don't fear a detention from the dean, being sent to the dean's office, or a formal write-up that goes to the Assistant Principal. But they do fear receiving a letter home about conduct.
I've been haphazardly looking for high schools to work at for the next year. Unfortunately, most schools do their hiring in June/July because we teachers don't tell our administrators that we plan on transferring until mid-summer (so we can hold onto our jobs/benefits).
Last week I went to what I thought was an Open House at a high school for Social Justice, which was actually a group interview. There were mainly teachers from social studies/english backgrounds applying for jobs, and the interviewees included teachers from the school and students from the school which to me was awesome to see work.
Needless to say, I rocked the group interview because the other applicants, who were experienced teachers, really didn't have a clue as to what to expect from a tough high school like this. Their responses to classroom management sounded like something I had said last year when I was applying for a teaching position; all too idealistic. When it was my turn to respond, I said, "Look, I give students two warnings, then I say I will send a letter home, then make a phone call if the student continues to misbehave." Which is a standard approach to management for "tough" schools. I also mentioned the amazing power of candy in the classroom which really lightened up the mood in the room. Later on, I spoke to the other candidates and found out they were from other parts of the state and from private schools (and really had no clue what they were in for if they were to work at this school). I was also able to come up with a lot of methods to integrate social issues into mathematics, which actually isn't too hard to do except for the really obscure and abstract mathematical concepts.
Yesterday, I was called back for a second interview and expected a half-assed questions and a short-and-sweet discussion. These were my expectations because I knew that this was a tough place, and math teachers are very hard to find for a majority of these schools. And my interview for the school where I work now was a total joke (was literally hired on the spot). So I walk into the second interview and its a panel of 3 adminstrators and 2 teachers. They asked me tough questions about lessons and projects and I basically told them, "Look I'm a first year teacher, I'm just trying to get by, but here are some things I would do". So I realized halfway through the interview that this was a serious interview and that I probably wouldn't get to work at this awesome school because of my teaching experience.
I'm really just trying to get the heck out of the middle schools to run away from the, "he/she took my pencil!!" or "he/she hit me!!"
This Memorial Day weekend me and my roommate are moving to Forest Hills (east of where we are in Queens, NY), which is better because of the express train, staples, barnes and noble, and just a "hipper" crowd of people. | | |
| i figured it was time for an update on what i'm doing here in queens new york
heres what i've been up to:
last week
sunday: work
monday: work
tuesday: work
wednesday: work
thursday: work + graduate classes
friday: work
saturday: errands, rest, veg, rinse, repeat
heres what i'm up to:
next week
sunday: work
monday: work
tuesday: work
wednesday: work
thursday: work
friday: work
saturday: errands, rest, veg, rinse, repeat
that is all.
(make a guess as to what happens next....)
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