Using Issues Kids Care About

This year--it's hard to believe--I have multitudinous seniors who envy their 18-year-old friends. Why? No, it's not because they can finally buy cigarettes without worrying that the Conoco guy's going to card them. It's not because they can now shop for porn at Fascinations. It's because they're old enough to vote in November. I have other students who, realizing they can't make a difference by voting, have chosen to become activists. One of my 17-year-old students has registered 250 people to vote and in doing so multiplied her "would-be" vote exponentially.

And it's not just the Obama kids. My conservative students (God help them) have also become vocal. I had a student the other day voice her support for McCain because she wants to go to med school and thinks a more universalized health care system would victimize doctors. Another student questioned (rightly, I think) Obama's promise to cut taxes on "95% of the middle class." It's the same textual analysis I teach in AP Lit., but they're applying it to the, gulp, real world? Don't look now, but kids are talking about something other than beer bongs and Insane Clown Posse.

So why wouldn't I use this energy in my classroom? Last week, I discussed the speech with my AP students. I had to cut them off or they would have gone all period. I'm having my sophomores study both of the major party's acceptance speeches. If you can find an educational opportunity imbedded in an issue kids are emotional about, you gotta use it.

Working Harder than the Kids

It is 3:53 AM. I just had an anxiety dream about my family's finances, woke up, couldn't sleep. Tomorrow, or really today, I will teach and then head to Invesco Field to watch Barack Obama deliver a historic acceptance speech to 70,000 people who would go nuts if he read the phone book. This should be a great day.

Except for the 45 or so letters and 100 journals and 100 reading assessments in piles on my desk and filing my web site in boxes. They are mostly all the sincere work of young people. After all, it's week one, and many of them are giving the best effort they will give all year in order to impress me. I must look at them, comment and give them back, or else I risk being labeled "the lazy grader," which I don't want--at least not at this point in the year.

So I work harder. I guess this is one of those days I get up at four to grade.

Things I did in the first three days to build rapport

1. Have students introduce themselves, give us a story to remember them by, and name their favorite gas station food. The next day, I brought up some of the ideas again to soidify them and to build rapport with individual kids. Example: chile button @ 7/11 (David Brewster)
2. Be up front about how being in AP is a choice and that the expectations will be high--in a tone that doesn't scare kids but lets them know I'm serious about what I do.
3. Made students read Huck Finn without apologizing.
4. Made good on my promise to collect summer reading journals.
5. Normed the classroom with sophomores by having them come up with rules based on the following questions: What should you expect of your teacher? What should your teacher expect of you? What should you expect of each other? How should conflict be resolved? What are fair consequences for breaking rules?
6. Asked them to sign the document they created and then posted it.
7. Had them write an introductory letter to me explaining (among other things) their history as a reader/writer. I showed them slides of my family and talked about a person in my life who has changed me (Sam) and then asked them to do the same thing.
8. Introduced my web site as a place to upload assignments and post feedback for me. Showed them a picture of the fish I caught this summer.

Lightness and Focus

Oscar Wilde said, "Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about." It's a good quote to use if you want to teach paradox, and it alse serves as a reminder that rapport in the classroom involves the seemingly paradoxical balance between lightness and focus. Too much focus, you lose them. Too much lightness, you also lose them.

Profiles of Teachers who Lose Rapport

There are so many ways to fail in the eyes of students. I work in a high school, which means I work with a group of critics. Below is a list of criticisms I've either heard from teenagers or come up with myself. We must take our students' criticism with a grain of salt. On the other hand, we should sort through that criticism for ways to improve.

We all begin the year with the potential for rapport, meaning that every student arrives in our classrooms hoping to enjoy their time with us. Can you picture yourself walking into a classroom thinking, "Man, I hope I hate this teacher this year! That way I can sit here for 180 days bored, angry, and disillusioned!"

Profiles of teachers without rapport:

1. The "Mean" Teacher
2. The "Rigid" Teacher
3. The "Lazy" Teacher
4. The "Too Fun (cool)" Teacher
5. The "Too Close" Teacher
6. The "Distant" Teacher
7. The "Unavailable" Teacher
8. The "Repetitive" Teacher
9. The "All Business" Teacher
10, The "Phony, Insincere" Teacher
11. The "Weak" Teacher

Rapport and Day One

You hear teachers say this all the time: "Don't smile until second semester." I can't think of a bigger mistake a teacher could make. Conversely, I think the fact that I show enjoyment for my job on day one helps me more than anything, and, yes, this show of enthusiasm includes smiling--maybe even some (gulp) laughter!

This need to appear "tough" to students comes from a deep insecurity that we won't be able to control our classroom. Teachers are authority figures, therefore we should maintain authority at all times, right? No way. We facilitate. Our students are like valves in the pipeline of our instruction. If we allow too much pressure to build, our pipeline will eventualy explode and become useless. If we release pressure every now and then, we maintain our pipeline. Consider the kid who likes to joke around. Maybe he's showing off to the girl across the room, maybe he's masking his insecurity about learning, maybe he's simply testing the teacher because it's more fun than listening. We will eventually find out why he does this, because we will eventually get to know our students. But we don't need any time to release that--on day one--our student is fooling around. So release the valve a little. Diffuse the behavior by allowing a little of it. Yes you risk a little rapport with the student who likes a perfectly orderly classroom. Later on, you can release that student's valve by demanding order: "Hey, this is really important--I really need your attention here." The idea is not to allow anyone's valve to malfunction, and of course to avoid the ultimate rapport killer: the exploded pipe.

Rally Ideas

Rock Band Competition: One teacher team and a team from each class.


Steph,

Thank you so much for your help and your ideas. I’m so glad you’re into it!

I’m thinking all of your ideas could work. We could project gutar hero onto a big screen and maybe have the “best guitarist from each class compete: semifinals and final round or something.

I have a guitar and hundred watt amp that I can bring. I could work up a song or something.

Rock on!

From: Ortiz Stephanie Sent: Tuesday, August 19, 2008 12:36 PMTo: Spare AlexSubject: RE: rally

Actually, I was serious about the air guitar thing. I would say something that doesn’t require the rest of the students to see the TV (I’m not sure how Guitar Hero works.) The “larger” the better-air guitar has large movements. We have some good (real) guitar players, too. An old-fashioned electric throw-down might be really cool.

What about some sort of costume contest they know about before each assembly? They know the theme (unless it’s a secret) and can try for best costume or group at the assembly. The kids would be excited beforehand, but the actual judging wouldn’t take long.

Another staff-type skit might be good. Starts with the staff, then staff plus kids, then maybe kids could take it over. The students would get used to expecting a short skit, and would probably be quieter for them.

Even small things such as planting kids to start a wave, or to get the classes chanting things at each other would be good, I think.

Fun

rally idea

Dog Show:

Have students and faculty bring their dogs and do a dog show

Possible problems: allergies and floor

Micheal Phelps and ADHD

Norming in sophomore class--use this article and then talk about the difficulties of handling the workload and stress of school.

Class Rules

1. Tell the truth.
2. Clean up your messes.
3. Hang On.
4. If you're going through hell, keep going.

wiki "how to"

Found this website. Among other things, it has a "how to" guide for every poetry form you can think of. Also a cool general idea: using wikis to make kids show mastery of certain topics. You could divide up a broad topic into segments and have each student or group upload a segment to the wiki and then present. YOu could also use wikihow to bolster student "how to" speeches. Kids love to show mastery. How to win at Doom. How to tumble. How to hit a nine iron.

Being firm and building rapport

Talk to Thom Uhl about how he does it.

Cell Phones in the classroom

Article on using cell phones in the classroom.