by Donna Swagerty Shreve
In the year 1993, I was back in a classroom. I had been first a science consultant for elementary teachers for two years and then I became a math consultant for two years. The funding was in question for another year as a consultant, so while the Secretary of Education fought over money with the governor, I was put back into a classroom in case the money did not come through. My first year back was most unpleasant due to the school campus climate. I put in for a transfer and I was now at Morada Middle School where 17 different languages were spoken in the students’ homes. Fortunately a second language aide was provided where there was a larger number of second language students in a particular classroom.
Lodi Unified was on a year round schedule and there were three tracks of teachers and students so there were always 2/3 of the school population on campus all year round. On my A track were four math teachers, two for 7th and two for 8th grade. One of the math teachers always volunteered to make up the class schedules for the Vice Principal. His offer was gladly accepted as scheduling is difficult balancing all of the various needs of students and teachers. He had given himself the advanced class for seventh graders and then regular seventh grade math classes. I had all regular math classes except my first period class of eighth graders. It was explained to me that they were below grade level so I shouldn’t think of them as actually doing eighth grade level math. There were 28 of them and only 11 of them were officially promoted from eighth grade at the end of the year.
Most of these students did have failure as a common experience but there were a few exceptions. One was a very bright seventh grade girl who needed the class to complete her schedule so her afternoons could be free for ice skating practice. Administrators were worried about putting her in a class ahead of her grade level. I was much more concerned about her social situation. However, both of concerns were soon not a problem. She was tough and easily adapted to her unconventional math class.
One morning our class witnessed quite a scene. Here were two of my first period absent students were being delivered from the back of a sheriff’s car parked in front of the school. Our classroom faced the front street of the school and we had a ring side seat. These two were being brought back to school because they had been passengers in the stolen car. The driver, who was also from our class, had been held at the station as he was the driver. The guardian of the driver was being inconvenienced enough to have to pick him up. The class was full of known gang members and potential drop-outs.
I adjusted my teaching and procedures to best reach these students. Late assignments were never marked down. The student was always in control of his/her destiny. After-school help was available every day. Most students rode the bus home and there was a late bus available an hour later for various after-school events.
One student took me up on after-school help. He had never handed in an assignment so I was quite pleased he was giving getting extra help a try. As we started to try to solve a few problems, I reminded him he could get a calculator and use it. He got the calculator and then admitted to me that he did not know how to use it. That after-school session was devoted to learning a useful tool. I was so pleased he asked for help because he had a real tough guy demeanor. He returned on many more occasions and we actually made some progress. His final report card that year was all Fs except for math. He received a C in math and I took his C as a real compliment.
The general class culture was to resist all attempts at learning and be proud of failure. There was an unwritten motto that if you didn’t try, you didn’t fail. I turned to project-based learning. We started an unit on three dimensional geometry, known as solid geometry in high school. The students were partnered up with one other person and given a bunch of centimeter grid paper. They were to create a three dimensional building and then find the surface area and volume. We played a game of selecting various buildings and lining them up. The class was then to order them by smallest to largest based on volume or surface area. Many of the students became quite good at their 3-D estimation skills.
I mentioned the amazing progress the class was making to my principal and she came into first period to see for herself. She came back with her camera and guests. A fuss was made over them and I watched various reactions from the students. Some were enjoying the positive attention except for two boys. They were quiet guys who stayed in the background.
All partners were now to duplicate their building with construction paper. The final products of these buildings were then placed on a grid of the students’ Polyhedra Ville. They created streets, parks, a school and building lots. As the finished buildings began appearing on the grid, I noticed those two quiet guys making no effort to make the final copy of their building.
When I pushed them, they said they were the ghetto. Unfortunately their ghetto remark brought laughter from their peers. They were not budging. After a bit of questioning, I realized what they were afraid of was success. They were not comfortable with it and felt much more used to failure.
Another attempt at motivation was what I called Carrot and Catsup Fridays. The carrot represented a fun activity that was achieved by making attempts at their classwork and minimal homework. One example of a fun activity was done outside our classroom. I made a huge model of Bucky’s Jitterbug out of PVC pipe and flexible tubing connecting them. Fortunately I had an excellent second language teacher aide who supervised the group outside in full view of other students. The game was simple. One student created a geometric shape with a hand-held small Bucky Jitterbug while the group had to match that shape as a whole, working together to push and pull the large model into the same shape. The students then rotated to the next student leader while they all hopefully got a turn. The challenge was I had to create more fun activities so there was variety. If the weather was not conducive, I had a variety of indoor games to be played indoors.
Catsup was actually “catch-up” with your unfinished work from the week. Slowly the carrot group grew but I never got everyone. I just could not entice them all. That first period mostly felt like a failure but there were fun moments when students felt success and “worked” in spite of themselves. There were also some students, eleven to be exact, who actually promoted on to high school.
The hardest part of teaching for me was my failure to reach some of my students who were so entrenched in failure. They even bragged about their lack of success as if it was something they could achieve, no matter what. They had obtained quite a “skill.”
1242 words
5/24/20
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