Ben Guest’s Neighborhood

A quieter week

This week was a little mellow than the last one. My boss who was my previous highschool teacher turned out to be one of those bosses who are ocassionally-heard-never-seen ones. In another life that would have bothered me but then this is a good thing.

I won't come home this weekend nor do I feel the need to go. It feels relieving. Though I am going to work on a Saturday, I still feel a little better. I hope this continues. Happy weekend everyone!

My Life in Mississippi

Here is a favorite photo from graduation day, last weekend. On the coaxing of Mom and me, we stopped to see the antebellum archtecture in Holly Springs. That's my nephew in the foreground. His great-grandmother is said to have babysat Elvis in Tupelo. How many of you, I ask, can claim just three degress of separation from the King?

Youth Movement

Topics of conversation at school today:

Mr. A "lookin' clean" last night at graduation "wid dat suit on"
Ms. H not giving Mr. A a ride home from graduation
which teacher made Mr. G mad by giving their exams early
whether Mr. A will let us go to the gym today if we get our work done
why Mr. A did not ride his bike to school today
the fact that Mr. A was lazy
... too lazy to ride his bike today
... because he slept in
... because he woke up at four o'clock this morning, only to go back to sleep at six
whether Mr. A slept with his girlfriend last night
who copied whose answers
who got their "little paragraphs done" for detention
yes, Mr. A was in Peace Corps, and no, that did not involve flying airplanes
Mr. A should write the "I-C-A" at the end of "Jess"
referring to all students by the last three letters of their names
Mr. A, "You play too much!"
Mr. A will take that "big fat pen" to match his "big fat wallet"
Twon has a two-year-old son by Mafiyania (who is in alternative school) - "You didn't know that?"
Mr. A thinks Twon should reconsider his plans to father two more kids before he finishes school
Mr. A's behind-the-back dribble at lunch today, the fact that he "pushed" Kiki to get the ball, etc.
students throwing stuff at Mr. A during lunch today
whether we really "all use math every day" as my casual Friday t-shirt proclaims
"Warm-up #1: the answer is 4" - half the class got it right!
Mr. A is a high school drop-out
whether Mr. A is attending the parade this afternoon
whether Mr. A is attending the clubs tonight
Mandy apologizes for slamming the door in my face earlier
Mr. A's letter to the superintendent requesting $$$ to start up the soccer program

Happy as I am not to teach Transition to Algebra next year, I am starting to realize how much I will miss them.

Read to the Kids!

Regarding the importance of reading to children from an early age (MTCer's see comments here), an idea has occurred to me from time to time for a family literacy program. The idea is to establish an evening program where poor, at-risk families are encouraged by the prospect of free food and possibly even an hourly remuneration to attend reading workshops that last an hour or so each night. The setting is comfortable, friendly, and informal, but focused on reading and literacy, without the interruptions of television, cell phones, boyfriends, etc. For the first part of each session, the children (the younger the better) are read to by master reader volunteers (who could be teachers or advanced high school or middle school students) while the adults are taught literacy skills by trained adult literacy specialists. Later, since one important aim is to get parents in the habit of reading to their children, each adult is scheduled a formal, supervised time when they will read to their children, even if they have to rehearse a familiar storybook with help from a tutor. Overall, the emphasis is on encouraging regular attendence and participation while making adults and children alike comfortable with reading as an enjoyable family tradition.

It seems like a good idea in need of funding to me. Has the Barksdale Reading Institute considered anything like this?

Why love maybe all about laughter

We all think that love is all about the deep things in life - and that the strong bonds of love might be about the sacrifices that people make for each other. Well, love can be a little simpler than that.

A recent research conducted with 52 couples found that laughing strenghtens the relationship. When people laugh at the same thing, they validate each other's opinions. Private jokes and pet names, things that others just don't get,stengthen ties betweek couples.

One of main reasons why people who laugh together find that they grow to have each other is because laughter is a pleasurable experience. The more positive memories you have, the more you love the other person.

If you have ever ate something and got sick and then decided from that time on not to eat the food again? Same thing applies to relationships that have a lot of negative images. Negative images add up to pull the relationship apart.

The second component of love is those secret little pet names and private jokes that no one else know about. These little secrets help the couples feel that they are in a tight bond. It seems that they are likely in their own little world with their own language that no one else understands.

So, may I suggest that go ahead, create endearing yet funny and unusual pet names. Even "klunkhead" may evoke such giggling-inducing and warm associations with the moniker that only the two of you will hold dear.

"i hope stephen lard is not a fatty" (end of the year reflection)

interobang
2 days ago
1 comment

Or How my first year will turn into a second.

[Disclaimer: I was listening to Josh Ritter while writing this on a very good day, hence the sappiness. As a side note, first-years, teaching is an emotional roller coaster. Had I written this on a bad week, the tone would be very different. But I do love my job more than I hate it, and I will be back next year.]

Six days left. That's no more than 9 hours with any one student. That's tomorrow and then ONE MORE WEEK. With giving an exam on Monday and Tuesday, that's four days of instruction left. Four days. That's only six hours of planning. Six hours of new material. Six hours of worksheets and book work and review games and "shut your mouth" and "sit down" and "did I ask you a question?!?" and "say something crazy!" and "no, no, no." That's six trips to the cafeteria with my lunch block. That's six trips to the bathroom. That's six times in the hall with a class. That's six "BH why you late?" and six "AR have a seat" and six "JB calm down." I can count to six in two languages. I can estimate six things without actually counting. I can eat six Newman O's in one night. I can play six chords on the guitar. I can name six kinds of tree. I can name six countries I have been to. I can drink six beers in one night (although definitely not a school night). I can do SIX.

School curve

2 comments

[For help with my basic emotional feeling towards work and whether I was coming back, you can refer to the chart I have included. One of my fellow classmates used to make the most ridiculous "feeling charts" like this. He said he always loved to quantify the unquantifiable.]

I began the year a scared and timid teacher, unsure of what to do, what to teach. That timidness is not all gone. But more often I am reminded how much I rock. Especially in the past few months I have opened up to my students and my coworkers. This has been a very good thing. But before this, in February, I was decidedly not returning to teach. I had had enough disrespect and struggle with too few rewards. I was not using my brain at my work. I was too smart to teach. Too good at math. I could do statistics and really enjoy what I do. Why waste another year that would suck (maybe not as much as this one, but definitely quite a bit)? Why make myself miserable again.

I don't have two better pieces of advice for first-years than these: coach and try hard to appreciate the rewards. Coach. Do something extra-curricular. Do something that the kids will enjoy, because your class will not be one of those things. When you see a few kids in a different light, enjoying what they do, you start to see more and more kids in a new light. Sooner or later the screw up kid gets on your nerves a little less. You focus less on how unprepared these kids are and how little they care and you focus more on the funny and endearing things about them. The ways they see the world. How it makes you feel like a kid to be with them. Few twelve year olds bring a smile to my face like my soccer boys do. I love to see them because I see in them what they love. When I started to see what my players love, I could start to see things like that in my regular students. Some MTCers will urge you to stand a robotic distance from your students. I will always walk a closer line to them. Never the same one, but I will let them (and myself) know that our lines are not all that far apart. Some of my kids appreciate it. Some of my kids don't give a shit. Some try to take advantage of it. But this is the life of a teacher. Interacting with kids is never perfect, but you should always try to enjoy it.

_______

Today we finished up the MCT-2, a trilogy of state tests given to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders in Mississippi covering Math, Reading, and Writing. Instead of jumping back into work, I asked my students to contemplate the test and the year as well. I asked them what they thought we studied too much and too little, what I could have done better, and what they could have done better. In the midst of our discussion I added a bit about teachers that students don't like. These tend to be the student-teacher relationships that create the most trouble and the most disruption. "You may not like a teacher," I told my class, "but you only have a few hours left with him or her. Not just a few hours left of the school year, a few hours left of your life. Some of you don't like me. Some of you don't like my class. In just seven days if you don't want to ever see me again, you don't have to."

The more I think about, the more I feel my life as a teacher has revolved around what I said to my fourth block: "I do not have a student I don't like. I like everyone of you. Sometimes, some of you drive me crazy. Sometimes, I wish that some of you were not in my class. But I like each and everyone of you."

I don't think my students hear words like that enough. I didn't give them unconditional love, but I give them unconditional hope and advice and an ear to listen. I give them an unconditional "hello" in the morning and a "good afternoon" on the way home. Say what you will about me being naive or racist, but I felt a longing when I spoke those words. A longing, as if these children do not hear this from their parents or their loved ones enough. And I can see it in the way they interact sometimes. A yell is a greeting. A phone call is a hug. A whupping is an "I love you." I'm not saying that my students are not loved by their parents. I would say that most of my parents love their children, but I would also say that most of these parents don't tell their children they love them enough. Maybe my students want me to remember them. Maybe they want me to think of them long after the summer vacation has gone. Maybe they are worried that if I don't think of them in the years to come, no one will.

We all want to be loved. It's why we tell jokes. It's why we do nice things for others. It's why we make conversation and listen to what others have to say. It's why we show empathy. It's why we enter into relationships, good and bad. We are worried that when the time comes to be remembered, to be loved, we will be left by the wayside, bothering no other person's thoughts.

I think this is what my students are searching for from me. They disrupt my class, yell at me, cuss at me, threaten me, disregard my rules and directions, neglect my homework, holler "A LIE!" when I give them work, earn an 'F', get sent out, sleep, chew gum, eat food, talk in the line on the way to the cafeteria, shout out in class when it's not their turn. They do all this because they want me to remember them. And when it comes down to it, they are right. I probably won't remember the kid who did everything I said and did all his work. He has made my life easier, but he has not impressed on me the way the kid who tested my patience every day has. That is the kid that I will remember for a long, long time. I won't remember his face. Maybe not his name. But a part of him will stay with me for a long time. And maybe this is what he wanted. Because when it's all said and done, this kid will have some white guy from North Carolina, who came down for a few years to teach some poor black kids some math, who remembers him. And maybe he will feel loved. Maybe for the first time. Hopefully not for the last.

Wedding Pictures

Rehearsal dinner

This is a picture of me, Milan, Ariel and Christina. Milan is my new niece and I cant get rid of Ariel (my niece) or Christina (my twin sis) if I tried!! Lol

A Laughing Matter....

Getting students to help grade papers: free participation grade

Getting students to perform a wedding: free laughter

Having a student pronounce GRAND CANYON, GRAND CRAYON = priceless!!

Last Days of School Idea

Going to my sister's wedding has inspired me to do a classroom activity with my students. (Pictures are coming.) As an extra credit assignment, students have the opportunity to put on a non-traditional "American wedding". The students are so accustomed to Christian weddings that need to be exposed to how other religions and cultures view marriage. Students will depict their perception of the type of wedding they have chosen.

Just in Case

Chimaobi
3 days ago
10 comments

Hypothetical situation #1:
You have a student who honestly tries hard to do their work, consistently comes to school and turns in assignments on time, and is never a behavior problem. They are one of the "smart" kids and participate in a number of after school clubs because one of their best friends from their neighborhood does and, at some point, someone just might have told them that they too were academically superior. The students is a complete joy to have in your class and always asks to help with little things that you're doing such as passing out papers or cleaning up your room. Quite nice.

Problem: The kids is not the sharpest tool in the shed. Despite attempting to do the classwork most of their assignments are graded as D's and F's since the student rarely follows directions to assignments, really struggles with reading comprehension questions, and cannot write cohesive paragraphs using standard English. At the end of the nine week period after all is said and done the student ends up with a 69 average. You have told the students time and time again that you do not and WILL not give out any points extra on a report card just as will not take any away. Although the students will not know this, you can change her grade. Only you will bear the knowledge of having violated your principle. What do you do?

Hypothetical situation #2:
After a long day at work you are invited to a party at a social club in the small, rural town where you teach and live. You're not sure who has invited you but you think, "Hey...I'm 22!" and decide to go. You hear that this is where the elite of your town party so you're looking forward to it as an opportunity to meet and mingle with these so-called "elite." Upon arrival at the party's venue the first person you see is a student of yours. A star student. Actually, one of the star students at the school. You soon find out that the party is a birthday party for the student's father. She is helping set-up and music is playing inside the social club while alcohol is being brought in by the caseload. The student's father thanks you fervently for coming and says that once the kids leave you should let loose and get down (meaning drink, dance or do more with the scantily clad women on their way, and engage in weekday/work night tomfoolery). To top it off your principal, a good friend of the birthday man, soon shows up and pours himself the first of what may be numerous alcoholic drinks as he slaps you on the back and addresses you in an informal and friendly manner the likes of which you've never seen from your boss. It could be a long night. What do you do?

More deaths in Myanmar is not caused by the cyclone,but by their government that should protect them

The tragedy in Myanmar is more saddening not mainly because of the further rain, but because of the government who has refused foreign aid inspite of thousands dying.

It's military junta has denied aid from the United Nations and other foreign organizations who just want to five water,food, and medicine to the now-homeless, hopeless citizens because of the cyclones. The military junta stressed that they should be the ones who will be solely responsible to give basic aid to the victims especially in the far-flung areas.

CNN reported that the citizens of Myanmar who fortunately survived better than the other millions, have taken the initiative to distribute the most needed items for the victims. But the weird and sad thing was, they have to hide their faces so as to avoid military junta retribution. It appears that the government would punish their own people just because they are joining the move to help those who are in dire need. What kind of government is that? What do they get by refusing foreign or even internal aid? What's it for them? The glory? Sole acknowledgement of assistance? I don't get it. People, especially in the small and hidden communities are literally turning turning rain water to drinking water just to survive. New-born babies are freezing to death and the government refuses to receive milk from outside sources. I really don't get it. Now isn't the time to think of policy differences, but to think of precious lives waiting for aid.