On the Reservation

During our field trip to Family Dollar and Denny's today, this is what my resource math class learned by not being in the classroom:

- Count your money before you shop. And always get a receipt.
- When you buy more than you can afford, you have to put something back.
- When something is advertised as 2 for $1, you can buy TWO of them for just $1!
- Four quarters equals $1, four quarters equals $1, four quarters equals $1...
- When you have $10 of school money to spend, make sure you buy plenty of Hot Cheetos, sunflower seeds, fruit punch...
- ... and watches, tape players, batteries, toothpaste and toothbrushes.
- Even if you can't read, you can find what you want in a menu by looking at the pictures.
- If your double-Western cheeseburger is too big to fit in your mouth, squash the burger down with your hands and cut it in half.
- Always say "please" and "thank you."
- Cheesecake tastes pretty good. But good old banana splits are better.
- Stack the dirty plates before you leave the table
- It's OK to use a calculator at a restaurant to add up your bill, and to calculate tax and tip. Grown-ups don't always like to regroup or borrow either.
- If you don't stay within your budget, you're staying behind to do the dishes.
- Word problems really do happen in real life.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dear parents and guardians (and readers),

The C-Wing math class has been working very hard over the past year learning how to count money, make change and solve word problems in everyday situations. While these math skills are critical to improve on our IEP goals and school-wide assessments, they are critical for real-life situations.

On Thursday, March 29, 2007, our class will be attending a field trip to Family Dollar and Denny’s in Gallup. This field trip will be an opportunity for students to use dollars and coins to purchase items and food. This is an extension of the activities we have practiced in class for counting money, calculating change and interacting appropriately in public.

Please check back on Thursday evening for an updated post on our much-awaited field trip!

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am so tired. It isn't even dark yet, and I'm already slouched over my laptop in bed, ready to call it a night. Is it because I have been pulling late nights constructing award-winning unit plans? Is it because I have been toiling long hours at school to develop high-interest, multi-sensory centers that touch on all of the multiple intelligences? Not even. I haven't taught jack yet this week and won't be providing services until next.

We're just in the middle of our New Mexico Standards Based Assessments. This is the week our entire school year has been bracing for. This is what our teaching has revolved around for the past eight months. This test (and the students' scores) will determine our future as a school (Corrective Action, anyone?), our fates as teachers (Hello SY2007-2008!) and our pride (or disappointment) in our students. This is the time when nerves are strung, the room is hushed and No. 2 pencils are sharpened and (hopefully) poised for academic brilliance.

I am so tired. I am tired of testing for 8 hours straight each day. I am tired of reading the same questions out loud and I am tired of not being able to help students when they genuinely want to know what "foreshadowing" means.

But most of all, I am tired of revolving my lessons around the NMSBA. I'm tired of teaching kids the tricks to taking standardized tests when I really would love to spend more time teaching them tricks to decoding tough words. I am tired of watching my students in special education feel like losers for failing a seventh grade test, when in fact they have already made two years of growth to reach the third grade reading level this year. I am tired of watching all that confidence we built up over the past eight months be blown away by a single state-mandated test.

This is not a rant against No Child Left Behind. This is not a rant about state and school accountability. In fact, I am in favor of keeping NCLB with appropriate reforms and funding, and mostly agree with the Washington Post's editorial on proposed changes to NCLB. Assessment, accountability and results are key to academic success. I look forward to a healthy balance nationwide of accountability and creative teaching.

All I really mean to say is, despite how tired I am now, I am really pumped up to teach the last two months of school, post-NMSBA.

EDIT: I'm also tired of not being able to tell my kids how supremely proud I am of them when they remember how to convert fractions and plan an essay, even though they were working on regrouping and writing a simple sentence back in September! Even though we're in the middle of testing, they still wave me over to look at their work and it kills me to not be able to tell them how much they rock.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 9:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

As a middle school teacher, I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to recall life at 13.

Since I was suddenly launched into the role of teacher two years ago, I struggle to remember how my favorite educators set up their classroom routines, how they taught fractions and what color pens they used to mark errors. I desperately try to dredge up these memories, because those were the most thorough classroom observations I had ever conducted. Surely if I could repeat their teaching strategies, I could recreate their successes as well, right?

Right.

It's only been 10 years since I roamed the halls of Cabin John Middle School as a student, but I can barely remember what we learned in 6th grade Reading, let alone how it was taught. Did we learn to read through whole word or phonics? How did the teacher explain similes? How did I learn to write a complex sentence? I wrack my mind for the vaguest of memories that might guide me in teaching my own students.

But instead of remembering how the Social Studies teacher taught us through project-oriented units, I remember inane details that won't help me as a instructor. Such as how Elena and I made a deal in Spanish class to switch seats each day so we could take turns sitting beside the oh-so-cute Kevin. And how I skipped gym class to go to the library. And that Mrs. Dennis wore a wig.

I also remember the loneliness of wandering the hallways in the morning without a "clique" to hang out with. I remember the humiliation of changing for gym class during that time of the month. And the fury and shame that coursed through me when I heard my first racial slur. I recall how it felt to feel fat at 13. And how feeling unpretty was far worse than earning a bad grade.

So, no, I don't remember much of what was taught in the middle school classroom. My students' education may very well be worse off because I have no idea how Mr. Sindall ran those incredible Social Studies simulations in 5th grade.

But that's a pretty good indication of how I need to prioritize for my students. They have been learning and they have been improving academically, but the real take-home ideas for them are probably not going to be that awesome lesson I did on similes. Rather, it's probably going to be how the teacher praised them. And what the other kid said to them. And how it felt to be 13.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 11:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I am so sorry that I was intrerding your class.
I am so sorry that I was intrerding your class.
I am so sorry that I was intrerding your class.
I am so sorry that I was intrerding your class.
I am so sorry that I was intrerding your class.
I am so sorry that I was intrerding your class.
I am so sorry that I was intrerding your class.

I am so sorry that I hit "Elmer" in the hed with my folder.
I am so sorry that I hit "Elmer" in the hed with my folder.
I am so sorry that I hit "Elmer" in the hed with my folder.
I am so sorry that I hit "Elmer" in the hed with my folder.
I am so sorry that I hit "Elmer" in the hed with my folder.
I am so sorry that I hit "Elmer" in the hed with my folder.
I am so sorry that I hit "Elmer" in the hed with my folder.
I am so sorry that I hit "Elmer" in the hed with my folder.

Dear wiser teachers,

How do I teach self control? My students have taught me so much over the past two years, but it seems like it's never enough. I know to teach self control explicitly and kindly. I know to be stern and to identify self-controlling moments as they happen. I know to ask students self-reflecting questions to help them reconsider an action.

But it's never enough. How do I teach children with behavior disorders to control their cruel words, their abusive actions, their self-hatred? How do I teach all children to be nice? I think we've cultivated a pretty strong culture in my classrooms, but it's never enough. I never asked her to write this. I just found it sitting on my desk two hours after I wrote her up for hitting another student on the head. I know she didn't really mean to hit him, but she just did. How do I help her to teach herself control so she can stop apologizing?

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I shop at Safeway, I pump Chevron gas and I can still order a No. 2 McDonald's breakfast whenever I want.

Sometimes, I forget that Gallup is somewhere very different from where I grew up.

But everyday things remind me where I am. Like when the sun rises over the mesas as I cruise down Highway 491 to work. Or when I visit students' hogans and explain that it really doesn't bother me that there is neither heat nor electricity. Two weeks ago, I was reminded how very far away I am from home when I told my students that I was going to New York City for the weekend. Their mouths were agape. Their eyes were incredulous. Ms. Shyu was going to take an airplane to New York City.

Growing up in the D.C.-region, New York City was a place to meet friends for a party, the prime location for good Chinese food, and a weekend trip destination to see a show. But the looks on my students' faces reminded me that most of them may never have the opportunity to see a city I take for granted. They begged me for pictures. They made me promise to tell them what it was like. They reminded me to come back.

At first I felt ashamed. Why didn't I arrange a field trip for my students to the East Coast? And then I felt guilty. What made me deserve to go to New York City more than any of those kids? And then I told myself to get over it. Even if my students never make it to the Big Apple, they could at least get a taste of it.

And so that is why eight huge slices of New York-style pizza were carefully double-wrapped and tucked in my suitcase Sunday night. That is why we ended math class half an hour early last week to have a surprise birthday party for my assistant complete with cake, presents and New York pizza. And that is why I am reminded every other day by students to bring back another pie (or two, or three) when I return to New York in the spring.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 9:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)