Day 53: Student Blows Up

Agenda-
Homeroom
Class: Creative Writing
Class: Pre-AP Sophomore English
Class: AP Senior English
Lunch
Study Hall

Creative Writing went well as always. I asked them today to think about a date system of some kind as some of the students had already included dates in their biographies and stories. We decided that we are currently in the year 1000, that there are 10 months in every year, they are 6 weeks in each month, 10 days in each week, 25 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. Everyone threw out ideas and then we voted on them. We decided to let people name the months regionally but that they would be known all over our world as 1st Moon, 2nd Moon and so on. The students then worked on their quest stories some more. There were a few that seemed like they had quite a bit more to do and then there were some that were like us and were almost done. We decided that we could afford to give a little extra time to finish them up and for editing before break.

The sophomores were not happy with the seating arrangements. They were rather upset that I decided they couldn’t handle sitting where ever they wanted to. I explained to them that there was a little too much chit chat for me when they picked their seats and that I wanted to see them working with different people. We talked about the book and then I handed out their Holocaust Victim Cards. Once I had handed them out the students got out work to do either on their presentations, on their scrapbooks or on their reflections over their cards. The 4 boys asked if they could go out in the hall to work and I said yes. The complaint about the seats came up again and I explained again why they weren’t allowed to pick their own seats. Tori spoke up and said that the boys weren’t working right then and that they were probably just playing games on their computers. She said that they were just jocks. I told her that we shouldn’t label people because of we label people then we run the risk of treating them differently and then we risk treating them badly. She responded with how she labels herself all the time. I then asked the class how the Holocaust got started and explained that there was a lot of propaganda during that time period against Jews and it was the stereotypes and labeling that eventually led up to the persecution of the Jews. It was at this point that Tori started yelling about how she was a teenage girl in high school and that she labeled people and that maybe she would regret it later on in life but for now that was what she was going to do. She said her family does it and so she was going to do it too. I didn’t know how to respond to this so I said nothing at all. All I could think is that this girl clearly thought that I was trying to attack her in some way. And I was suddenly very disappointed in her. She is one of my students with a 4 in the class. I thought, such a bright girl and she can’t even see beyond herself for 1 minute. I thought “No wonder this class is so obsessed with seating.” They can’t stand to be near each other. I knew this student has an attitude but I has always thought that attitude was towards stupid people. I didn’t think that her definition of stupid people might be different from my own. I couldn’t come up with anything to say to her or a way to react. I just let it go. I think I just need to regroup and maybe rethink this unit. They obviously don’t understand why we are reading Night.

The seniors were much better. I did the same activity with them that I did yesterday. It always amazes me which students sort of open up and respond to you when they realize that you understand them. Makenzie really enjoyed my poem that I read. She really wanted me to read her poetry after I had read mine. She talked to me about how she wants to be a human rights activist and she talked about how she really found getting inside people’s heads. Her poem that I edited for her today was really very good. I only had one suggestion for her and it was really just changing one word. I recommended to her that she read Maxine Kumin since she seems to interested in the human rights, politics, and people. Maxine Kumin is the kind of poet who really makes these issues stand out. Maybe I will read one of her poems in class someday. It was nice to have the seniors after the fiasco with the sophomores. The seniors suddenly seem so much more mature. They were a little bit more talkative today and again I saw a lot more students wanting to share their poems with me. I’m glad I read them one of mine.