Delta-isms

As if we weren't challenged enough in our daily endeavors to close the achievement gap, Corps Members also faced the constant challenges of what we like to call "Delta-isms." Whether its the accent or the way they use the term, we are constantly trying to decipher region-specific language.

Imagine trying to teach a lesson and your student raises her hand and says, "I gotta use it." I am already somewhat annoyed that my lesson is being interrupted especially when behavior management starts to go to you know where when students' attention turns from me to someone else.

I ask, "Use what?"

"I gotta use it."

"Use what?" I ask again, further annoyed.

"Use IT!" My student reiterates.

Further confused, I mumble something and turn back to my lesson... whoops.

Delta-ism #1: I gotta use it = Can I go to the bathroom?

Delta-ism #2: I nee a PAN-cell/ PAN-cer = I need pencil.

Delta-ism #3: Es-kurz me = Excuse me.

Delta-ism #4: Ma'am? = Could you repeat what you just said?

And as if it isn't enough to try and navigate the accent and word-usage, we also have to remember how to pronounce names that I have decided were created specifically to look like one thing while sounding like something exactly the opposite. Try teaching a lesson, managing a classroom and pronouncing these names at the same time. Here are just a few examples:

Syh'lence = Silence (seriously. no, seriously)

Am Unique = This is one of the most popular names in our school...

Chakaviante = Sha kay vee on tay

Zakwon = Zay kwon

Zimarion = Zy mare ee on

Exzarius = exactly like its spelled, but still

Ja'marqavius = Ja mark ay vee us

Urhyness = Your highness

And my personal favorite La - yia = La dash ia

Miss Claiborn

(This is a compilation of names I have heard and names I have come across. Luckily we usually don't have all of these in one class. It would be like our own personal tongue twister.)

Wrapping Up the Hardest Five Weeks of My Life

For all of you who do not know exactly what I have been doing this summer, here is a quick recap.

Induction: June 8-12, spent time getting to know our region, sessions on specific challenges we will be facing in the Delta

Institute: June 13 - July 17; five weeks of intensive teacher training, which includes four weeks of teaching summer school in local schools; regional corps come from all over to the Delta for Institute, I just got lucky because the Delta is the site for Institute

During Institute, I have been teaching entering third grade math and reading along with my Collab (collaborative) who is another Corps Member. We each teach a two hour block of either reading or writing. My collab this summer has been a wonderful Kappa (for my aunts) who is going to be working in the Charlotte region.

We are now entering the final days of Institute, and I believe everyone is ready to be done with this schedule. Its hard enough to be living in dorms again with people you had never met before, but add in an average of four hours of sleep a night and days that stretch into 15 hours of work, and you get one hot mess (as my southern friends would say). We're all tired and a little burned out and much more cognizant of the fact that the next two years are not going to be a walk in the park. Students in the fourth grade in the Delta are, on average, 2 years behind in reading. Eighth graders are, on average, 3.5 years behind in reading. Think about teaching your students how to write a math word problem when they cannot read or write let alone form full sentences. That is the reality of the achievement gap, and, after Institute, the 2010 TFA Corps has gotten a healthy dose of reality.

Institute has been rough. It is not for the faint of heart. However, TFA believes in trial by fire. The people who weren't completely committed to the cause at the start of all this have long since dropped out, and the ones that are left have the tenacity it takes to make it through two years of fire.

Yeah its hard, but, geeze, I have never felt so productive! We've built relationships that will last beyond these five weeks. We've gotten to know ourselves better than ever before. We've discovered that waking up at 4 a.m. day after day is actually possible. We've prepared hundreds of students for their next year of school! We've gone from the top of our classes at university to the depths of despair about ever becoming a real teacher to building a foundation for strong student achievement in our regions. Most importantly, we've survived.

When you step back and take a look at the big picture, its pretty cool, no?

Anyways, I am moving now into an unfortunate flex time after Institute. Since I have yet to be placed in a school, I cannot find housing, which puts a kink in everything. If worse comes to worse, I'll be living in what they call the "TFA mansion", which is where they put all the unplaced corps members while they wait to get a job. Its not ideal, but right now, it looks like that may be a very real possibility for the first part of August.

So for now, I'm finishing up and playing the waiting game.

Miss Claiborn

P.S. We tested our students in reading today, and each of them made significant gains!

The Funnier Things in Life

I've realized that I haven't shared any of the hilarious things that happen in my class. In between the serious times of behavior management and learning, learning, learning there have been some rather entertaining bits.

We have one student, Tiona, who is very tiny and very sweet. She barely talks in class, but when she does its usually to tell me, "I like your shoes, Miss Claiborn." In the mornings we have reading, and all the students sit on the carpet in the back of the room while I read aloud to them. When I do read aloud, I try to do the voices of every character to make it more interesting for the class. Most days it works out just fine, but this particular day it backfired big time. That day we were reading about Little Billy, who was very bored and so he wandered, against his mother's wishes, into the Forest of Sin.

Miss Claiborn: "In our story, Little Billy is very bored. While he is looking out his window into the Forest of Sin, he hears a voice (using my best scary voice), "There are no monsters in the Forest of Sin. Your mother was lying."

(I stop and look at the students. Tiona is staring at me with her big eyes, waiting to know who is talking to Little Billy in such a voice.)

"Who do you think it was talking to Little Billy?" (I pause for dramatic effect....)

"It was the Devil!"

Tiona then proceeds to hug her knees closer to her chest as her eyes get bigger and she yells out in front of the entire class, "OH MY LORD! NOT THE DEVIL!"

I then realized that as eight year olds who have grown up in the bible belt, my students may have a healthy fear of the devil instilled in them by hundreds of "Fire and Brimstone" sermons. I had probably made it worse with the voices and dramatic flair given that the Devil isn't even a minor character in the novel, he's simply the reason Little Billy goes into the forest. As we kept reading, I hoped that some other parts of the story would draw her attention away from the tiny blip about the lord of the underworld. Little Billy is chased by a Gruncher. He climbs a tree and discovers a tiny people living in the trees. He then goes on to ride on a swan and kill the Gruncher in a daring chase through the forest.

Alas, all of these events failed to take her attention from that one part of the story, evidenced by how she answered the assessment at the end of the day:

1. Name a character in the story

The devil

2. Name one event in the story.

The devil whispered in Little Billy's ear.

3. Give a summary of the story.

Little Billy listened to the devil.

4. What was our big problem in the story?

The devil

5. How was our problem resolved?

Little Billy stopped listening to the devil.

And on, and on, and on.....

Note to self: avoid books with the devil in them when you are teaching in a state where parents use the devil as collateral for making their children behave.... I wish I were joking....

Oh well. Live and learn and try to traumatize as few children as possible.

Miss Claiborn

P.S. Asked one of my students what he wanted to be when he grows up: a professional eater specializing in hot dogs.

The Second Worst Day of My Life, and The Day After the Second Worst Day of My Life

So this week started out just like I though it would. I hadn't gotten enough sleep, as usual, but I felt more prepared going into the class than I had the week before. Unfortunately preparedness was not the issue. Its not enough to have all the papers copied out and in order, and to have all your notes on the board, and to have the pages flagged in the book you are reading that day, when, in the middle of the bathroom break, I'm on the floor of the boys bathroom, holding one of my students in safety position trying to keep him from attacking one of my other students. Its not enough to be prepared.

After a grueling two hours of being flipped off, called a various schmorgesborg of expletives, and twice having to physically restrain a student from hurting himself or someone else, I was done for the day. Luckily, my CMA (Corps Member Advisor), the SD (school director), and the CS (curriculum specialist in charge of classroom management), had by then recognized that with eight days of teaching under my belt, I was not quite capable of dealing with those kind of problems on a daily basis. They quickly reorganized some of my students so that the five that were the most difficult as a group were now spread out in five separate classes. Their quick action kept me from packing up and leaving last night. I never seriously thought about walking away from it all until I was sitting on the floor, alone in a room of twenty, eight year olds, while one of my students screamed and kicked in my arms and the others stared in shock or cried at their desks. But with the support of capable people and a long nap back at the dorm, everything came back into perspective, and I realized it can only get better from here.

Just as yesterday was unique, today was unique as well. I got through my entire lesson, without one student in the chill out chair. I felt like a teacher for the first time, instead of a baby-sitter. We still have the students that can't actually read, so they get bored and act out, or the students who are three years ahead in reading, so they get bored and act out, but overall, there is a definite sense of control and calm that was missing before. I'm not a perfect classroom manager yet, but then again, I've been in a classroom for nine days, so I'm going to say it can only getter better from here.

In some ways, I feel like a failure. I didn't like seeing my former students at lunch today because I was just getting to know their story and just starting to figure out a tiny part of their lives before all hell broke loose. One was pouting and refused to look at me because he just didn't understand why he had to leave my class. Unfortunately, I couldn't explain it to him. For some reason, our class was the perfect storm of too much energy and too much anger for one, inexperienced teacher to handle.

On a happier note, I'm going to New Orleans for the Fourth. Be jealous!

Miss Claiborn

P.S. Thank you for all of the Birthday wishes, cards, and presents!