Warning: the following is very negative (obviously not very Emily-esque).

When I was in school at TX, my fellow secondary Education students and I constantly heard that the first year of teaching was going to be one of the most difficult years of our lives: we'd be out of college and in the real world, attempting (with only a couple years of study under our belts and 0 years of hands-on experience, mind you) to make a difference in the lives of teenagers. At the start of the year, I braced myself. I have been pleasantly surprised, however. It has not been the most difficult year of my life thus far. This week, though, I have begun to feel the weight that certainly our Education professors and Master Teachers warned us about.

Causes of this weight: I was called a "f***ing b****" to my face on Monday. Long story, which I won't get into. I am not an ESL teacher, and yet, 1/2 of my students are English Language Learners. I have no idea what I'm doing. Many students cannot write a complete sentence if you ask them to. I fear for my kids' futures. I am afraid most of them will not be very successful in this world. I fight them. I fight them every day to do their work, do their work, do their work. Try. Try. Try. Look at this. Notice this. See how cool this is? A few do. Most don't. They want to leave class. They don't want to be here. They skip. I hear them talking about this girl getting pregnant, and that guy dropping out, that "b****" and this "hoe." They like me, sure, but are they learning anything that is going to benefit them in the lives they choose for themselves?

I'm required to teach them persuasive writing, but how can I teach them the pieces of an argument and require an essay if they cannot construct a well-written sentence? I know that it requires building blocks. I know that I have to start with what they can do and be careful of slipping into the habit of looking at what they can't do. But when your job is to teach these students English, and they can't, you try being 'positive Polly.'

How do teachers do this for 40 years?

H-U-N-T = P-I-M-P

TRANSCRIPT FROM A 7TH PERIOD MOMENT TODAY: 

Maricruz: Miss, why do we alllways have to write in complete sentences?

Ms. H: How else are you going to learn to write in complete sentences or even think in complete sentences? Lord knows not from your text message conversations with all those “idk” and “lylas” and “luv u”s y’all use. Y’all should see my texts. I literally text in complete sentences with correct commas and all that jazz; it always takes me at least two pages to type a full text.

Maricruz: Miss, you don’t say “luv u” when you text your boyyfrrieeeend?

Norma: Nah, she doesn’t say “luv u” 'cuz SHE’S A PIMP!!

Try conducting a class of 17 girls after someone makes a declaration like that about you!

Ms. Hunt's Mohawk

 

A student's response (who literally never speaks- I know, I'm working on it) to this Writing Workout:

"If I wanted to persuade Ms. Hunt to get a mohawk, I would use pathos, and I would tell her about how she could live forever and get rich."

LOVE MY STUDENTS

Learning to Change-Changing to Learn

I agree with a good majority of the things said in this video. It is a challenge for teachers (and parents, too) to re-shape their understanding of what the classroom should look like. We are in a new age with a new type of learner sitting in those desks. The difficulty, too, is finding ways to teach our students to synthesize, critique, gather information, create something digital, etc. with limited time, resources, and money. I feel we're lacking the push we need; we're on our way to being a kind of education system that supports digital classrooms, but we're not quite there. We need more access to tools that teach to this new kind of learner. And let's be honest, we need more money to do this.