I’m going to start giving you a glimpse into the day in the life of a teacher on a regular basis. I’m still going to provide you with helpful articles and ideas for the classroom, but sometimes as a teacher, you just need a place to cheer about the positives and rant about the disasters.
Yesterday was one of those days that I have now started to dread each Friday. At the beginning of the year our middle school team along with our AP decided to implement PBIS Fridays. We already have a PBIS incentive in place with Wildcat Friday where students can go to the canteen and buy exorbitant amounts of sugar and snacks if they have had good behavior, but rarely anyone pulls this from our middle school students like they should. Trying to keep up with behavior and sometimes the large number of lunch detentions and minor infractions in the classroom can be overwhelming, so middle school teachers just say, “whatever,” and let the students go to the canteen. We know that even if we say that a student can’t go, the student will just give their money to another student, and they will still have snacks. Why fight it?
PBIS Fridays on the other hand was something that was created due to the large number of students who failed for the year last year due to zeros. While Covid may have created many things in the form of changes, the largest change was in the number of kids who have become completely lackadaisical about completing assignments. Much of this, I’m certain, comes from the fact that when schools were shutdown the first year, no assignments were completed and students were promoted regardless of the fact that they did absolutely nothing. That’s that large number of students that couldn’t be found or accounted for that our state worried over. These same students came back into the classroom and completed nothing last year. My gradebook was filled with zeros that I had to constantly fight to try and get assignments from students, but I received nothing. Mind you, I don’t give homework. These were students who chose to sit in class and do nothing.
This year to combat that we decided to give students extra recess every other Friday. Students receive the reward if they have no missing assignments and they have not had any office referrals during the two week time span. Our office referrals are now for hard core incidences. All others are dealt with in the classroom and through lunch detentions. Should I mention that students who come to school tardy get lunch detention? After the second tardy, they receive lunch detention for each time they are tardy. We have only one teach on our hallway that is a stickler about this. Most of us allow up to 8 a.m. and not the 7:55 bell because we know that breakfast lines can be long and the children have to walk from one end of the school to the other to get to us. Morning intercom announcements come on at 8:02 a.m., so we don’t push the issue.
Anyhow, the problem with our PBIS Friday is that just like the morning tardies, there’s no consistency, and some students don’t care about the extra recess. In fact, some students only care as to whether they have their normal recess. Plus, it has become so chaotic outside that some of the 6th grade students would rather stay in that go outside and be bullied by the 8th grade boys who take their footballs. This isn’t my problem. My problem is students who do want to go outside (and it is the same with other teachers).
Thursday I reminded students that I had not received their work. I gave them highlighted grade reports and informed them that they would not be going out the next day. Many students immediately submitted blank documents hoping that I would just see that they had submitted work and remove the zero so that they could go, but instead I busted their bubble and told them that I do indeed read each and every submission. The missing work and zero stood.
This brings me to a particular student who emailed me at 5 p.m. that afternoon with the phrase, “Grade my work now!” I wasn’t going to because I was already in a foul mood that day due to the number of students who copied and pasted things from online and plagiarized, but I decided to open up Schoology and view his assignment. It wasn’t blank. Instead, he had copied and pasted another essay he had written into this document and submitted it. I commented that it was copied and pasted and was therefore still missing.
Friday morning, while teaching my first period class, I sat down at my computer to pull over the assignment that they would be working on when a computer was suddenly thrust into my face and the student called me a liar. One, you walked in unannounced. Two, you shove something up in my face. Three, you accuse me of lying. You need to step back.
I backed my chair up to get away from the computer and looked at the student. He was angry. His essay on the screen was about how he got in trouble for having missing work. It was his problem and solution essay. I looked up at him and told him that I wouldn’t be grading that essay until Monday. I had just found out that I would be covering for absent teachers during my planning, so grading that essay that day would not happen. I also told him that it wasn’t the assignment I was referring to and that he needed to go back to class. I would speak to him when he came to my class the next class period.
This child goes back to his first period class and undoubtedly texted mom and dad. Five minutes later the school receptionist sends me an email stating that I needed to call the parent. I was furious! The assignment in question was from November 2nd. I put zeros in the afternoon that the assignment is due. Y’all, where was this furious parent when the zero entered the gradebook? Why wait ten days later when your child wants to get his extra recess? Did you know he hasn’t been doing my work because he’s working on other teacher’s assignments during my class period?
I did explain to the student and showed him the assignment I was referring to, and I told him how to fix it. He did all of his assignments. He got his extra recess. This same behavior, though, was consistent with other teachers as they all had students interrupting their class begging to be taken off the list. Why wait until the day of to do your work?
During the recess time, I had a teacher send me my entire homeroom almost to sit with me during that time. I hold 6th grade during the recess time, and instead of having 10-15 students, I had 47. Well, 46. It seems that one decided that she was not going to stay and she went outside. She’s done that several times. What happens to these students? We had not discussed this part of the plan. Also, the reason why the students from my homeroom were in there even though they did their work was because they didn’t know that there was a cut off time. Every teacher seems to be different. This also poses a problem.
Our solution, after an active email chat that I started when I posed these questions is to apply some consistency. Names go on the list Thursday if we don’t have work. Students are informed on Tuesday they will be on the list. They can turn in work on Wednesday. It doesn’t solve the problem of those who are just not going to do their work, but it will stop the day of madness. Then there are the students who have to stay in during that time who get signed out just prior. That’s a whole new can of worms that this teacher is just not ready to open.
