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Oho! So, some of you were actually reading this thing! And here I thought that the only person paying any attention was my niece, Erin...and I was ready to just pick up the phone and call her with all of this stuff. But, since several people have harangued me (okay, inquired politely, but it felt like haranguing to me!) about telling you all what happened...I'll relent. Here's the update.

ME - As I expected, the school district rescinded my layoff notice...science teachers are as common as "compassionate conservatives" so I get to keep my job for this next year...actually I predict a mid-year budget crisis that will have them issue me another pink slip...so stay tuned. If I'm wrong, you get to tell me and I'll be happy to be wrong!

About the various students...

LJ - the boy who was arrested for allegedly throwing a fire cracker out of the school bus...the judge threw the case out when he heard the evidence and said it never should have gone that far. LJ returned to school to plenty of hugs and happiness...and was recently diagnosed with leukemia. Without health insurance, he and his family now have an actually very serious problem to deal with. Good thing he's not sitting in jail too.

The other two boys who were arrested for inciting a riot...the one who had the panic attack which started the "riot" pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and received probation...his fellow students wrote messages on a "we miss you" poster outside my classroom which made him very happy on the two occasions he came back to visit...he will be returning to us next fall if all goes according to plan...the second young man was 18 and already had a record so he received a short jail sentence and probation and will not be returning.

DJ, the girl who cut herself went back into the hospital for several weeks and when she came back was very tough to reach...she wound up not trying to make up any work she missed and failed Biology....after a few weeks she began smiling again....and then her cousin (the one that got the gift basket at Christmas) was admitted to a mental ward of the hospital mainataining that she heard voices telling her to kill herself a week after a friend of hers committed suicide...she too was gone awhileand had a tough time bouncing back (who wouldn't?).

I gave all of my students my cell phone number and email address and told them to call or email me anytime over the summer. Other teachers tell me I'm crazy for doing that, but I've never had a single student abuse that priviledge (they don't send me stupid forwards that clutter my email inbox!), and, let's face it, if you're telling me this is evidence I'm crazy then you're crazy for overlooking all of the other evidence that points in the same direction...so who's crazier?

Okay, that's all for this semester. Next year instead of AP Envi Sci I'll be teaching Marine Science. One of my goals is to have some of my students become certified SCUBA divers...that will totally expand their view of their place in the world and what is possible for them. It's hard to think too much of yourself when you enter the underwater world and it's hard to think too little of yourself when you've overcome fears and ignorance to earn the right to call yourself a SCUBA diver.

By the way, if you enjoy reading this blog, you'd better let me know in the comments. If there's something you'd like to know more about, let me know that too. I hate typing all of this stuff and then not getting any feedback....I could be eating chocolate instead!

Students disappear and reappear; pink slip

After the last drama-filled entry outlining students in various circumstances of peril, I'll let you know what has happened to them....a real mixed bag.

DJ, the cutter who was taken away in handcuffs on Parent Night, apparently spent time in a psychiatric ward on suicide watch (I found this out after asking her cousin if I could send her and card and she told me she couldn't have any sharp objects). She returned last week and appears to be slightly more comfortable with life...but far from a happy camper. I made sure she knew how much we missed her and are glad to have her back with us.

LJ, the kid who caught the firecracker on the bus and tossed it back out before it could do any harm, is back with us, but not without a fight. Our Principal automatically suspended him for 3 days, and it took an additional week before he actually got to return. Our students mounted a campaign to "be heard" so that what they saw happen would come out in the hearing in addition to what the adults reported. We teachers also wrote letters outlining what we knew about his character. Apparently, these efforts made a difference because our Principal reconsidered her decision to OT (opportunity transfer = kick out to another school) him. Everyone is pretty happy with this outcome.

The other two boys arrested for "lynching: inciting a mob to violence" have been OT'd to other schools. One of them is 18, so he pretty much lost any rights as a minor to continue in the public schools, so his academic future is in his own hands. The other, who was a terrifically kind, hard-working, positive-attitude, Special Education kid is at a nearby high school and apparently feels lost in the big campus shuffle again. We have not given up on getting him back. My students are making a poster telling him how much we miss him (on which I have glued one of his perfect Biology assignments with some encouraging comments) and we'll send it to him. Other teachers are counseling him to absolutely toe the line so that he can keep possibilities alive, rather than act out and kill off possibilities.

I, along with thousands of other teachers in my huge district, received a letter advising me I will be "terminated" (what a lovely word!) as of June 30. Not only am I not worried about losing my job, I am using this as another opportunity to be a noisy advocate for my students. I am one of the very few teachers in my district with the unique creditial to teach geoscience and Biology, which combined, allow me to also teach Environmental Science. I teach in a program whose first word is "environmental". I am the only one at my school qualified to teach that subject. I think this gives me job security. The weakness in that argument is that logic is not what drives hire/fire decisions....time served and credential status is. The other weakness is my status; I am still classified as a Probationary teacher, not permanent.

I have refused to participate in a 2-year "Beginning Teacher" program which is the final step in "clearing" my credential and filed for an exemption years ago. I have never had an acknowledgement of my request, let alone had it granted. The program I am declining to participate in adds many new, time-consuming, useless paperwork burdens on teachers that I am unwilling to bear. In addition, it is extremely poorly designed and administered. It is a lot like the free District Intern program I participated in for two weeks when I first began teaching, bu then dropped out of due to similar concerns. In that case, I wound up going to an expensive private college to meet my preliminary credential requirements and was happy with the quality and rigor of the program. Another reason I think that I should not have to be a student in that program is that I have been sought after to become a mentor in the program....so I'm going to use this pink slip situation to renew my request for an exemption. If I don't receive it, I will no longer be a teacher in California public schools....that still leaves a lot of open territory for me to explore. If they grant the exemption, I would be happy to remain where I am!

Little did they know that pink is my favorite color!

Back-to-School: Cutting, Cuffs and Inciting Riots

Tonight was Back-to-School Night! Last year, we planned way far in advance, organized a potluck, invited our Award-Winning student Mariachi group, showed slides of activities and I think I met with over 20 parents, which is about 20% of the parents, and a high percentage compared to what we usually get. This year, we weren't notified that this event was on the schedule until Tuesday, our student Leadership sold cold pizza and warm soft drinks (but not many!) and the police showed up to arrest one of our students and talk to the parents of three other students they arrested on Tueesday....oh, and I only met with 4 parents.

Remember DJ, who was reported to have been cutting herself? She was sequestered in our office this afternoon and evening until the Police hauled her off in handcuffs. Due to confidentiality rights, I don't know the charges, but I do know she's been stuck like glue to one of our female Security Supervisors for the past two days explaining some difficult situation she got herself involved in. By the way, I finally saw the cuts on her arms...she wears sleeveless shirts everyday and uses pen to outline the scars and fresh wounds. I don't know how I missed them the first time I looked, they're at her wrists and further up her arm. We've gotten help for her, but apparently, it's too little too late.

Yesterday our Assistant Principal called an Assembly at which she addressed the students. Citing confidentiality issues she said she could not talk about specifics of "the incident" but that how the students reacted on the bus was unhelpful and in appropriate and that she was proud of them for sticking up for each other. Confused? So were most of the kids and I. Turns out that Tuesday afternoon, as one of our buses pulled up to the main campus to unload our kids, the driver of the next bus observed a lit "firecracker" being thrown from the bus. An officer boarded the bus and removed the student reported to have done it. (That student was one of the students who was a recipient of a generous holiday donation I previously wrote about.) The other students on the bus were all trying to tell the officer that he was throwing the burning object back out of the bus after it was thrown into the bus from a car that had been following the bus. (Apparently this car had followed the bus before and its passengers threw rocks at the bus and the students, but no one had reported it.) In the confusion, one of my students began having a panic attack, so one of my former students helped him off the bus and sat on the curb trying to calm him down. At this point, the story goes, another officer told them to reboard the bus and when they refused and tried to explain, they were shoved by the officer, so they shoved back (not the brightest response!) and then they were thrown up against a car and cuffed. These two students were charged with felony "inciting a riot" and the first student was arrested on felony charges also (the exact nature of these charges isn't clear). All three spent the entire evening at the Police station in custody and were suspended from school for 3 days. The next day when the other students on the bus began talking with each other, word spread that the Police Officers did not have an accurate picture of what happened, so one of our English teachers asked the students to go see our Assistant Principal and write down what they witnessed....So, four Police Officers showed up to our Back-to-School Night (with their sidearms!) and interviewed lots of people. Our AP spent most of the past two days trying to have our students heard, and apparently tonight the Police were listening.

So, all of this kind of put a damper on BTS Night. Two unexpected happyish notes: one of the students' written statement as so incomprehensible that it led to a referral for learning disorder testing...and today in Biology we focused on the difference between observation and inference, and my students described how in the situation on the bus, different people made different observations and made different inferences! Exactly!

The new quarter

This is the second week of our 3rd quarter of the year, and that means I have all new students in Biology A. The week before the quarter began I freaked out because I saw the rosters. Second period had 35 students in it, about 10 of which used to be called "delinquents", and a cluster of 3 Special Education (SpEd) students. I don't mind having SpEd students in my classes, as a matter of fact, with all of the support they get from our terrific SpEd teachers and aides, these kids are much more focused, diligent and well-organized than regular students. And in my 3rd period class, there were 17 kids, half of whom used be called "delinquents", and 2 SpEd kids. I suffered a crisis of confidence; "Am I good enough to handle this or is it going to be a train wreck until June?" I had been hearing all year long how awful this particular crop of kids was, and I had to go into their classrooms several times when inept Substitutes could not establish a modicum of order. I also dealt with several of them in the hallways where they were roaming, talking on the phone instead of being in class. I tried to get to know them and begin to build a relationship with each one of them in preparation for they day they walked into my classroom. One of them, I'll call her VY, would always look at me with an "Eat $#!% and die, lady" attitude. So, I was braced for the worst!

Fortunately I had just attended a skills-based 3-day training on how to lower students' anxiety levels and build better reationships with them for the purpose of teaching the kids to manage themselves as a high-performing team....and I had been practicing on my existing classes so that I would be prepared. No way was I going to let these kids eat me for lunch!

Well, I have to tell you, it has been a slice of heaven. I told them I was preparing them to succeed in the professional world and that meant they'd be practicing how to shake hands and greet and unknown adult, and how to talk and behave in a professional group. They love it! They love shaking my hand everyday and they seek me out in the hallways to show off to their friends. They love cominng to class and their speech and behavior has been really wonderful. Today they worked together as a class to create their own Social Contract in which they detailed how they agreed to treat each other in class. I told them they did not have to vote for the contract or sign it, but they all did anyway. Last Friday I took the day off (to go skiing at Mammoth!) and the report from the Guest Teacher (Sub) was glowing; she said she'd love to come back to my classroom because the kids were so respectful and hardworking. So, I know this is still part of the honeymoon phase, but I've never had a class with this many clowns and low-skill kids...or any class actually....be this enjoyable and productive.

The "eat $#!% and die" girl? She walked into my classroom the first day expecting the worst...I could tell by the look on her face, the big sighs and the eyerolling and sandbagging. She is now one of the biggest smiles in my day and she speaks to me first when she's in a group of kids...this is huge movement for her. I just love how open and accepting these kids are; I feel so lucky to have this kind of people in my life every day! Wouldn't it be great if everyone were like that?

A follow up on DJ. I've seen her arms and I saw no evidence of cutting, so I'm not sure what the actual truth on that is. She is in one of my new Biology classes, so I can keep a closer eye on her, although she has already had several absences. I just hope those are for counseling...she wouldn't share the reason, just said it was for something she had to do. She's still struggling, but is showing a little spark of happiness now and then. Keep her in your thoughts!

DJ...and a tough day

Today's entry concerns a situation I just learned about today. One of our students, DJ, I learned has been cutting her arm quite severely. We have referred her to counseling, the school psychologist, a social worker...everyone we can think of, but she's really a danger to herself...and the staff is at a loss to know how to help her. Here's some back story.

DJ and her Mom have been living in a shelter for homeless people in Compton all year long. Her Mom speaks no English and Dad is long gone. She has cousins at this school, but the family doesn't really know how to get along with each other, so often these relationships are not only of no help, they are actually harmful. Just before the winter break DJ stole another girl's iPOD. This was discovered because she was unwise enough to take it out and look at it in a classroom, which is strictly against campus rules. The iPOD was a distinctive color and it had some distinguishing markings on it which signalled to the girl from whom it was stolen that it belonged to her. DJ was referred to our Assistant Principal who confiscated it and called DJ's mother in for a conference. Her Mother backed up DJ's story that she had indeed not stolen it, but found it in Compton. Unfortunately, the AP did not follow protocol and file a Police report; the result of that is she had to give the iPOD back to DJ and buy the other student a new iPOD.

A few days later, a friend of mine who owns a company in a nearby town notified me that she and her employees decided to give a couple of our students in need a gift for the holidays. I immediately thought of DJ, because I knew she and her Mother were struggling, and up until that point, she had been so happy to see me every day and so helpful and polite with me. However, after discussing it with the AP, we decided that because of the iPOD situation, we would give one of the gifts to another student. Unfortunately, the AP forgot about that decision and sent DJ to see me about the gift late that day. I felt horrible to be in the situation where I had to tell her that there had been a miscommunication and that I had nothing for her. It was only later that I found out that one of the recipients was her cousin, who she did not get along with, but who is one of my own students. I didn't think much more about it until today when I learned about DJ's cutting and that she seemed to have changed. As a matter of fact, I didn't even recall seeing her at all since we returned to school on the 12th (I've been out attending professional development classes quite a bit these past two weeks). I didn't see her until last period today when I saw her rushing down the hallway to go sit at one of the tables in the lobby area on our floor. Although I was having a conversation with other students, when I saw her I smiled, waved and called out her name. For the first time ever, she looked at me with no expression and just walked on to the table. She put her head down and just stayed like that. Can you imagine being her? Would you even want to come to school? How much pain do you have to be in to cut yourself? If that doesn't change anything for the better, what do you do next? I have a splitting headache right now, just thinking about it.

I also have a headache because today was a very difficult day in all of my classes. I'm implementing a new team-building, student self-management process in all of my classes and it's a challenge for both my self and the students. Yesterday, I empowered my students to create their own Social Contract detailing how everyone is to be treated. Today was the first day they were to live up to their contract and support each other in doing so. Several students already want to give up and stop doing it. A couple of "dears" who were absent yesterday (and most days) are refusing to sign. Almost none of the students is helping to hold other students accountable and I'm still having to do everything. It was exhausting. I did explain to them that this is something new that they have to learn and it will feel wierd and be unfamiliar and difficult until they get used to it and begin to see the benefits. Only time will tell...but I can't stop modeling living up to it because only then will it be a total failure and another demonstration that they can't count on any adult to be caring, appropriate and responsible. It's days like this that I have to really remind myself that it's all worth it. My hope is that I see some improvement tomorrow in how the kids support each other and in my own ability to deal with how difficult it is with more grace, patience and humor.