A Republic, Madam, if you can keep it

Two things of note to report from today and then a further reflection on an ongoing subject:

First, I revamped my syllabus as I said I would do. I'll upload a copy shortly so that those interested may read it at their leisure, but I have drastically increased the penalties for some things, altered how I do some other things, but all-in-all, I expect my students will do well. Many responded with a great deal of appreciation to the fact that I'm going to be grading them on their quote discussions, but those who did so are some of my most verbal students. Their grades suffered last marking period and I'm trying to adjust to accomodate those various learning styles. It is difficult for me both as first time teacher and as someone with one perception as to how a class should be run, but I want my kids to learn. With that as my base line assumption, I have to be willing to bend and adapt as I learn things about my students.

I have begun to be bothered by this in one sense. Certainly, the only proper way for me to master teaching is to teach. But sometimes I worry that my students are too much "guinea pig" for my learning and too little actual student. I wish I knew day one some of the things I've learned along the way. Next year's 9th Graders will have me right out of the gate applying many of the lessons it has taken two months to learn. And I still have so much to learn. Someone told me recently that my students are fortunate to have me. I hope so. But sometimes, I make blunders that only I know but that do, indeed, hurt my students. What if I'd been REALLY targeting reading comprehension on day one? or two? Instead of the end of the first marking period and now the second marking period, what if I'd been aware from the beginning? And I suppose there was nothing there that would have clued me in and other, more experienced teachers would have known just as much at the beginning. But what if I had fully comprehended how poorly my kids comprehend? If ifs and buts were sugar and nuts and all that, yes, I know, but still... next year, I'll start off understanding these sorts of things and great. But what about these kids? Yes, I know the school year ends in June, but two months gone already...

Second thing of note: My school now has a functioning student government. The President ran a Senate meeting with a quorum today, the first time that has happened. And they decided to hold a food drive. My students learn. The hungry get fed. And I? Well, I get to have at least one of those rare moments as a teacher that makes me want to pat myself on the back. It's certainly not over yet, but they have a republic now. Can they keep it? Well, stay tuned...

And finally, during the syllabus discussion today in one of my classes, I informed them of the crueler, revamped cheating policy. One of the penalties involves the cheater being called out publicly and the class losing all of their drop grade points. My point is to both emphasize the community aspect of the class ("you should be encouraging honesty among yourselves") and to discourage would be cheaters from cheating. One of my students pipes up, "Don't you think that person would get jumped after school?" My response? "I would certainly hope not." Student: "Yeah, well, they would, and you'd be responsible for that." The exchange ultimately led to this student daring to tell me that I'm an adult and that I should think through the consequences of my actions.

Before kicking this student out of my class for GROSS disrespect (you had to be there to get the whole gist of the situation, but it was pretty disgusting what he DARED to say to me), I told him, "If you think it's so harsh, then don't cheat." I'm reminded of an episode of Law & Order where a convicted child molestor sued to avoid prison because of how child molestors, historically, have been treated by other inmates. I don't remember the outcome of the episode, but I do remember my personal thoughts: "If the prospect of what prison inmates do to child molestors frightens you, here's a thought: don't molest children." Well, to this young man, my feelings are similar: If you fear the consequences for cheating, then don't cheat.

The syllabus, the Senate, the silly student, the first day of the week. And, arguably, it was good.