Pulling back the curtain a little bit

This week, with holidays around the corner and a full moon rising, many students tested their limits. At the water cooler, a young teacher confided, "I hate kids, I don't know if I can take it anymore!"

My response to lunar forces driving animal spirits to distraction was to schedule conferences and tutoring sessions over the holidays, both as a veiled thread, and a promise. By strategically contacting parents of my most intractable, most at-risk students, particularly those who I felt were under-performing the most, I hoped to gain leverage and earn "street cred" with the rest of the class, who have been dominated by a few, who have been purposefully making it an untenable learning environment. In short, I went rogue!

Today, for about two hours after school, I conferenced with Pablo and his father Salvador in the conference of a tower apartment. I smiled like a Chesire Cat as I gathered all of the materials from the 2nd quarter that Pablo had not turned in, in preparation for our showdown.

I have been telling students that everything they need to be successful in math is in their "playbooks," and that we teach how to run the plays in class. I showed Pablo and his father how to access the online textbook, an expensive, intelligently organized, but vastly underutilized resource developed by Pearson, the author of most state testing materials.

Pablo has been unwilling to learn fraction and decimal operations in class; yet, with a little effort, knowing I had dropped by his partner-in-crime's house and hoping to avoid the same fate, Pablo scored an 80% on a test concerning Modeling Algebraic Equations and Algebra Vocabulary. The concepts tested were equations; expressions; terms; signs for operations, equations, and inequalities; constants, variables, and coefficients. With evidence that the routine 20% and 30% scores reflected more of a refusal than an inability to learn, Salvador and I began to unravel all of Pablo's lies. Pablo has been "playing us," I concluded.

I helped Salvador understand that Pablo has been hiding all of the progress reports I have been sending home, plus his Interim Grades. Pablo had been telling his father that math is easy when his father has asked about homework, then getting on his X-Box.

On Christmas Eve, I will conference with Peter and his mom at their apartment, and will hand Peter's mom his progress report, which Peter had left behind in my room because it has mostly F's, instead of bringing it home. Last week, another Special Education teacher found Peter's Interim on the floor, which had an F from Mr. McDuff, his history teacher. I hand delivered it to his house around the corner. Peter's situation is different: when recently asked what is 3+3, he answered 16. Peter is probably one of those students the system has designated a "slow learner" -- low IQ, but not so low as to be in an a classroom with students who have and Intellectual Disability. Peter lacks "cardinality," i.e., does not automatically count on, but rather generally starts back at zero. Peter knows almost none of his math facts, and has no grasp of fact families.

On Thursday the 26th,  On Thursday the 26th, I will be dropping Kendall's project materials off at his apartment at about 5:30 pm, which he conveniently "forgot" to take with hi. I will help him get started on his project which is worth a large part of his grade. More importantly, I will be helping Kendall with fraction and decimal operations, which, like Pedro, he has flatly refused to learn, despite automaticity with many simple multiplication facts.

Three students, Pablo, Peter, and Kendell, have been wasting much of our class time, so it has been most pleasing to me to personally hand them the work that they have not been doing during class time, and getting their parents to agree to keep them busy learning what they should have learned in class over their vacation.

Here's how I got through to Salvador that we have a major problem with his son Pablo:

December 20, 2013

Hi Salvador,

When I stop by your apartment later today to conference with you and Pablo, I have some positive things to discuss, but I cannot stress enough how critically important it is that Pablo take control of his behavior when he returns from the holiday break. He needs to go forward in 2014 with the right attitude. Pablo’s success on the last test was remarkable because it showed what he can do when he pays attention and makes a minimum of effort. I need more focused behavior from Pablo, less disruptive behavior, less negative language, more learning.

I want Pablo to understand that my reasons for reaching out to him are twofold:

1.       I need to be able to teach

2.       He needs to be able to learn

One of my most important responsibilities is to enforce the Code of Conduct so that everybody can enjoy a classroom environment where teaching and learning can take place. If I were to record everything that Pablo has been doing to disrupt the class environment on a daily basis, it would get ugly. I don’t want to do it.

I prefer a more positive, more patient approach, and am sure that is the approach that my administrators want me to take. What I am saying is that I need to do everything in my power to help Pablo understand that he needs to control his behavior. If between us we can’t get it done ourselves, I will consider it a personal failure. I don’t like to ever fail.

If you and I fail, I will be left with little alternative but to move forward with a complaint about Pablo to Mrs. English. Pablo needs to understand that this is not a joke, this is serious. I am not sure that Pablo understands the seriousness of our situation.

Hopefully, this intervention on behalf of Pablo is successful, Pablo decides to more consistently make decisions that benefit both him and the class, and in 2014 Pablo becomes a success story.

Thanks,

Mr. Kurland