What a week...

So many ups and downs since my last posting that I don't know where to start, nor do I feel I should allocate the time given my workload at the moment. So, for now I'll just give a very quick update on my classes and then in a separate posting paste an email (minus names) to my advisor detailing the master teacher situation. Ugh. (Well, that's the intention--it will likely be comical how long it ends up taking for me to give this quick update: Quiet, Bobby!)

So the 10th grade class is still SO great. I actually have so much fun in that class, and I know that at least most of the kids are into it--and today one kid who typically seems disengaged was so excited about what we did today and was bummed that he's not going to be in class tomorrow bc of a field trip he's taking for another class.

I attribute my success in the 10th grade class to a few things. the first and foremost is definitely the book we're reading. Black Boy is *such* a wonderful book and just a joy for an English teacher to teach. There are so many things to talk about, it's amazing. There are all of the social and interpersonal issues on the micro and macro level (bc the characters are very influenced in complex ways by the racism that was rampant), and there is just brilliant writing. Text-tapping galore--which I actually haven't done at all on the sentence or paragraph level, but I totally want to. In fact, the book basically begs for it.

Other factors for my success in that class: the kids are awesome, I felt good from the start working with that teacher and being in that classroom, and the kids are awesome. And Black Boy is just basically foolproof. I feel so comfortable and confident in that class--such a difference from my other class! :(

Today in the 10th grade class, they were in small groups and had to answer study questions I created about half an hour before class. To take a little bit of credit, the questions I came up with were really good, and--it was so dorky of me--I actually reread them about 20 times (proudly walking with a smile and a skip in my step) after class. I also had a last-minute idea to have 2 groups do a macro-level text-tapping activity. (By the way, I find it frustrating that (as far as I understand) the term text-tapping is applied to two very different things and there is no distinction in name (which is why I say micro and macro level). For the uninitiated, micro-level is students imitating sentence- or paragraph-level writing of expert writers. Macro-level text tapping is filling in gaps missing from the text, which is what we did today. In the reading last night, Richard gives a speech as the valedictorian of his middle school. His principal tried to blackmail him into reading a speech he wrote, but Richard proudly refuses and insists on reading his own speech. Meanwhile, he doesn't include the speech in the book! So I had two of the small groups (these groups volunteered when they heard the option) write the speech they think Richard would have given. That's what that student got excited about.

The homework for the 10th grade class tonight is SO great! (It's ridiculous how excite dI am about it.) We've been talking about internalized racism and defining an Uncle Tom (Richard has an Uncle Tom in the book who just happens to exhibit characteristics of an "Uncle Tom") the past couple days, and tonight their reading deals with Richard trying to figure out how he should behave with white people and whether he should "be an Uncle Tom." Their homework is to read the chapter and then write at least one "thoughtful paragraph" (we discussed what that means) responding to Coretta Scott King's statement from an essay we read of hers that "He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it." FUN!!
Tomorrow's homework is so cool, too. They are going to do a values assessment of Richard. This activity is taken out of the Kahn book we read last semester (p. 30) and is such a great activity, I think.

Love this quick update! It's obvious how much I'm enjoying that class, though.

Update on my 9th grade class: It's going better.

See next posting for master teacher drama.