77 posts tagged “mississippi teacher corps”

It's the second-to-last day for seniors.  Your morning class has three students, only one of which is a senior.

This senior is bright, but regularly refuses to do his work.  He knows full well that he does not need your class to graduate. His overall attitude towards you and the class could best be described as "critical" -- his temper flares up if you press him about anything, and you get tired of dealing with a student who so obviously doesn't want to be there.

So on a day like today, where you aren't doing all that much anyway (finishing up the final project), and its his second-to-last day, you don't feel like giving him a hard time.  He comes in happily, begins quietly working on his project, contributes to the discussion, and even compliments you and the class.

But he is, to your eyes, obviously drunk.  What do you do?

Drawing

A smart, quiet student draws a detailed and lurid picture of a torture chamber for a creative project. You take it down to the principal, who tells you to leave it with the counselor. You give it to the counselor, who says a hurried thanks and drops it on the overflowing mountain of unorganized paper on her desk. You try to reach someone at home, but the parents' phone number is disconnected. What do you do?

Special Ed

You are making photocopies on your planning period when the special ed. teacher grabs your arm and asks you to sit in a meeting - they need a classroom teacher to be present, and you're free.  When you get there no one explains the purpose of the meeting, but you can infer that the district is officially designating a particular student as mentally retarded for the purposes of education.  You do not teach the student, have no idea who the student is, but you are asked to sign the forms as the representative classroom teacher. It seems like a formality, and you don't want to make a stink over what may be nothing, but . . . what do you do?

Repeaters

You teach a class of seventh grade repeaters.  Some have been in seventh grade twice, some three times.  They are much older than the other seventh graders and care nothing for school.  Your principal and curriculum instructor have made the decision to move them up to the ninth grade if they pass seventh grade.  They are failing your class miserably but the administration is putting pressure on the teachers to promote these children on account of their age.  You are told to just pass them.  What do you do?

Manson

You have a student who is starved for attention and often shows you his notebook full of references to the occult.  He wears Marilyn Manson shirts and a ring with a swastika (which was confiscated). He keeps a journal about alchemy.   He is often disrespectful to you in class, but if you raise your voice at him he warns you “Don’t raise your voice at me. My dad does that and I’m sick of being pushed around." He also occasionally hints at “getting revenge” on other students.  Everything this kid does is calculated for shock value, but still, he makes you uneasy. What do you do?

Cell Phone

Earlier in the year, you were a strict enforcer of the school's no cell phone policy, but, throughout the 2nd semester, you have relaxed a bit and, unless the student is blatantly talking on the phone or playing music, you disregard the usage of lesser incidents (texting under the desk, etc).

One student, who has always given you trouble and has a long history of discipline problems, has his cell phone out during a class assignment. After repeatedly telling him to put it away, you fill out a discipline form for this student and send him to the office. He returns 15 minutes later and claims that the office took up his phone and suspended him for five days. Five minutes later, a cell phone rings in the class. You discover it belongs to one your brightest students who has never been written up and is involved in one of the extracurricular activities of which you are in charge. The student hurriedly searches for the phone in her bag while muttering under her breath that she must have forgotten to put it on silent. The recently suspended students demands an action be taken and the rest of the class awaits your decision. What do you do?

Pass or Fail

JH is an exceptional education student in both your Algebra I and Transitions to Algebra class.  He is one of the nicest students in your class.  He helps do chores around the class without even being asked.  When you spend several moments stepping in an anthill outside, and, screaming, kick your shoe off, he's the one to pick it up, brush off all of the biting ants, and return it to you after careful inspection.  
In addition, JH is almost always on task and tries hard to complete his assignments.  He is capable of grasping some of the material, but not at a passing level.  You've called his mother and grandmother and talked to the special ed teacher, telling all three of them that you believe he could pass your class if he came to after school tutorial.   However, JH rides the bus, and his mother says she will try to take off from work to pick him up, but doesn't seem to actually be able to do so.  He comes to tutoring twice all year.

Algebra I is a state tested subject and according to No Child Left Behind he must take the state test and pass the class in order to graduate.  Do you do what the teachers before you have apparently done and bump Jamie's grade up to a 70 (passing) so that he can pass on to the next grade and eventually graduate, or do you grade JH as you would any other student and give him the 50 (failing) he's actually earned?

Bathroom

For the first three weeks of school you try a kinder, gentler policy on bathroom passes.  As a result, you spend as much time writing passes as you spend teaching.  At the beginning of the fourth week you institute an ironclad "NO PASSES" policy.  Students do not like it but most of them quit asking after you say no for the 5th or 6th time.  However, on Wednesday of that week, Annetra raises her hand soon after class starts and says she needs to use the restroom.  You say no.  She says it's an emergency.  You say no again.  About a minute later the room is quiet as you write something on the board.  Annetra breaks the silence by saying loudly, "Sir, I've got a girl problem."  Her friends giggle.  As you pause to collect your thoughts, one boy says, "That's right, she got that red thang goin'"; another boy says, "Sir, she gon' be leakin' in them pants if you don't let her go."  Laughter engulfs the room.  You are pretty sure you are being played but you feel like you have no choice but to let her go.  As Annetra stands up to leave, you tell her this is the only "emergency" she'll be allowed.  She agrees.

About four weeks later, as you are just getting into a lesson, Annetra blurts out, "Sir, I've got an emergency."  When you say no, she says, "It's a girl problem."  What do you do?