Causality

As mentioned in the prior post, some of the students' behavior is disrespectful, absurd, destructive and a whole list of other things I'd rather not say. To provide some examples;

• Tardiness -Today less than half of the class returned from lunch on time. The usual problem was compounded by the lack of bells (the MME is still going on), but even on a regular day up to 1/3 of the class can be late. Even worse, they're late not because they couldn't get to class on time but because they loiter just outside the door and refuse to come to class when told to do so.
• Texting -It happens all the time. For some it seems like an outlet when they find the material too difficult or confusing, others just a way to pass time. In either case, most will respond when told to put away their phones and then wait several minutes to remove them again. I've had several tell me to wait until they finish their text, and others that will start texting after asking me to explain a problem. On a brief side note; why students play back music on their phones as they walk around is entirely beyond me.
• Insubordination - The other day a student was given a ruler to use for graphing on a quiz. Throughout the quiz he talked continuously despite being told not to, and furthermore decided that insulting other students and making a wide array of noises was a great idea. After the quiz he took to spinning around his ruler and throwing it at which point Molly asked that I take it away. I told him to hand me the ruler and he started to play the game where he pulled it away at the last instant. In the background the teacher is trying to continue instruction while scolding him, and I'm getting awfully close to telling him how I really felt about his antics. I think Molly has given up on sending students out in all but the worse cases as she had removed the student several times during the week to no effect. It's awful to feel completely impotent as an instructor.

In each case, the consequences are either mild or inconsistent which (I think) give the students the impression that the teachers have no authority. My understanding is that our class is not an exception in this respect either. I rarely had kind words for my teachers in high school, but I was damn sure never to say them in any situation where the teacher in question could hear me. At YHS it's not uncommon to hear a few students each day muttering obscenities at me behind my back. My father would say that I have a bleeding heart for the number of times I've tried to help students that just immediately prior insulted me, I'm all for second chances. However, at this point I've begun to wonder if there's some sense in KIPP's military-style discipline. Even if the school adopted stringent and uniform policies that were enforced equally by each teacher, the necessary momentum to change the attitude of high schoolers has got to be enormous.

I don't want to be so glum though. There are a number of students that are respectful, but they can be hard to notice with everything else going on and they're certainly not the majority. I was hesitant to bring up the subject because I harbored some belief that an instructor could be so compelling that they shouldn't have to resort to anything so crude as punishment. As the behavioral issues have continued through about 7 months of classes, it is apparent that something fundamental should change. The trouble is in determining what that is.

When in the course of human events...

it becomes necessary to tell a student "Alex!* Get your hands out of your pants," you begin to wonder if self-discipline is something of a problem. Don't worry, the situation wasn't quite as lewd as the wording would suggest (he had gym shorts on underneath and was trying to hide his phone while texting), but the phrase caused a ruckus nonetheless.

In other news, Bonnie* was being disruptive during a class today and got moved to the back of the room (isolated from other students). The student then accused the teacher of reviving the practice of making African Americans sit in the back of buses back in the 60s, asked if the teacher was racist, and just generally made the event into a drawn out scene. Ironically, the same student frequently disparages the Chinese and asks me questions like "do you know martial arts," "do you eat Chinese food every day," etc. While my responses generally range from sarcastic to very direct, I don't think the student knows why the questions bother me. I feel like this is going to require a personal discussion at some point, a discussion that I do not look forward to having.

Race is a recurring conversation topic and appears in all different contexts. In another instance today, two students today were making comparisons between being told not to talk during a test and being slaves. Very early in the year, I was accused of being racist for forgetting a student's name. I do not want to avoid the subject, but I have admittedly not mentioned it before, despite its prevalence. At some point in the future, I will write a more fully developed post on the matter, but for now I thought it important to at least acknowledge.

* Names changed to protect the guilty, taken from the list of hurricane names for 2010.

Return to the Fold

Well, at least the students remembered who I am, and some even seemed excited to have me back. I just started a new term and will now be going in to class on Thursdays and Fridays. I hope that the consecutive days will provide more flexibility in doing problem solving with the students. Instead of try to wedge everything into a single day (or two disconnected ones), I'll be able to continuously engage the class. Come this Thursday I will be doing my first word problem of the term, provisionally #3340 (with some minor alterations to encourage interest).

Though class was out for nearly two weeks, it seems that no one has lost their vim or vigor. In fact, several of the students appear especially stressed. This may be related to threats that they'll have to repeat the first term material if they fail to pass their midterms, or maybe it's just the return to school. I am usually content with letting Molly handle the discipline and restricting myself to instructional efforts, but trends have convinced me to be more confrontational with the students about their actions. In particular, several students use talking out, throwing things, and harassing other students as a means of demanding constant attention. It is no surprise that these actions are detrimental to the entire class (whether one chooses to ignore them or cater to their whims), but I've come across no good solutions. In many cases the parents are not involved enough to care, and removing them from the classroom simply puts them farther behind (which worsens their behavior in later classes). Mentioning that proficiency in algebra is a requirement for graduation merely elicits shrugs.

This suggests several, equally displeasing, possibilities:

• They do not believe that they are capable of passing high school.
• They do not care about passing high school.
• They believe that the issue will simply disappear.
• They do not understand the word 'required'.

The first issue is, perhaps, the most difficult to deal with. Its presence is obviously rooted in (lack of) self-confidence. Though not a universal truth, I feel that most if not all of my students have the necessary faculties to complete high school if they so choose. The solution is then one of how to convince the students that they have such abilities. Any solution that would work on one student is not likely to work on another. Ideally, imparting motivation to the student would not be the responsibility of a single teacher, but rather the responsibility of every person the student interacts with.

The second issue strikes a bit closer to home for me. One of my primary duties in the classroom is to impart a physical appreciation for math and learning in general. This is done with the understanding that if the students perceive a usefulness for education, then they'll desire it. Either this assumption is wrong or I have been inadequate in my description of mathematical applications. Again, it would be a cheery world if everyone participated in demonstrating the usefulness of education, but I believe (with no evidence) that it should only take one or two particularly compelling subjects to carry a student through high school.

As for the third issue; much like when I ask the students to share their work with me, they may believe that the best approach to an obstacle is not acknowledging that it exists. In this case, it's instructive to quote an already over-quoted text (and perhaps convince them that not every adult's memory is short),

"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can [...] wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you)."

As for the final bullet point; there are several students that fall into this category and the school's opinion is that full immersion is the best approach to learning a language. I question the wisdom of using a math class to teach language, but such issues are beyond my pay grade.

Persistence Persistence Persistence Persistence

Maybe it is a bit inappropriate to reference Sisyphus when describing my work with the students at YHS, but it is somewhat unavoidable. Some days progress seems slow and halting and is inevitably followed by an equally large backslide. In light of my difficulties with the most recent problem of the week, I've decided to write a separate, but connected, piece.

Opposite to my tragic Greek brother's (after)life, a motif of 'lack of persistence' appears in many of my discussions with Mrs. Porter. In contrast to many that I know from college, the students in our classes find even the most modest challenges to be discouraging and disheartening. An equation that is slightly different than the one before is enough to render the student incapable of absorbing any information for the rest of class. All but a few are unwilling to acknowledge any difficulty, and in the worst cases, those confused turn to distracting the people around them. Most will disregard any words of encouragement and genuinely believe themselves incapable of solving certain problems. In these cases, I try to lead the student through a few example problems and have them tackle the remainder using those cases, but often they refuse to do any work independently. I've had several students throw their work to the floor as soon as it became apparent that I wasn't going to provide them with the answers followed by accusations of unfair treatment.

To their credit, many of the students are being asked to operate at a level much higher than they've ever experienced before. A large number have assessment scores which place them at elementary school levels, and yet we demand that they learn algebra. To make things worse, Mrs. Porter tells me that many have never had to do homework or take notes before, and must be taught the importance of both. Finally, each class is interrupted by futile writing/reading assignments that provide the students no feedback whatsoever. It is rather difficult to ask the students to do work that you yourself don't believe is useful or helpful. These factors contribute to a class whose content is pretty simple from a conceptual standpoint, but moves at such a fast rate through different assignments and subjects that few students can keep up.

The other day, Mrs. Porter asked me what it would take to properly teach the students. For many of the students in my class I believe that year-round school, with longer days and approximately half of the students per class are all requirements (there are many reasons for these, but they are out of the scope of this entry and for another time). Of course, there isn't a person in this world that could convince all the necessary parties to accept these changes, but for the current crop of students each step seems like a battle. I find myself wondering if any of what's being taught is retained. Most importantly, I ask how to convince the students that persistence pays off, because lacking that they'll be average in their achievements at best. Certainly, the concept isn't new to them, too many play sports or participate in other competitive events, but none of it is applied to their school work, or at least to math.

The Uncertainty Principle

Over the last several weeks of classes, I've noticed that it's impossible to predict whether a given student be in class on any particular day. In fact, there are several students on the roster whom I haven't seen yet. Weirdest of all, in this menagerie of truancy, is the steady appearance of new students.

After speaking with Molly, it seems that there's a large variety of reasons for this. In some cases, the students were being shuffled to smaller classes where they'd get more attention, in others they needed to switch course times for scheduling reasons, so on and so forth. I can't help but find it strange and off-putting that students have not yet settled their schedules over a month into the school year. The needless distraction of having to learn a new teacher's protocol, getting used to the new schedule, familiarizing themselves with the new class, all work together to take away valuable time from actual education.

I find that our classes are usually struggling to make net progress on a day to day basis. This issue is particularly noticeable in the fourth hour class which has over thirty students. A typical class period is split into the following sections:

1. The Starter - A short set of ~5 problems meant to emphasize important aspects of the previous lecture. During this period, Molly will generally walk around and check to see if the students have completed their homework.
2. Checking - Time during which the students correct their starter, and correct their own homework.
   
3. Lecture/Quiz - Meat of the class, often the time during which new topics are introduced. Quizzes are frequently held on Friday in order to cement the previous week of learning.
4. Homework - If time permits, Molly will help the students get a head start on the homework.

The schedule doesn't appear too hectic, but when the class period is 58 minutes long it gets a bit tight. When you add in the time it takes for students to get out notes, hand in assignments, and other small but necessary tidbits, the class seems like it's a non-stop whirlwind of activity. Whenever I have some free time, I've been trying to come up with suggestions on improving the class efficiency, but no eurekas just yet.