Anecdote #4

After creating a molecule of methane out of carbon and hydrogen atoms (via covalent bonding!), somehow the following conversation happened:

JK: I know you all have never done this, but do you know a friend who has ever farted?

Student: Forget that, I fart all the time. You know like when you hold on to them long enough so that they go silent? Yeah, I did that like all last period.

I'll file that one under "endearing" and call it a day.

Week of 4/19/10

This was a week of excitement, and those who I work with can tell how much ambivalence prevails when excitement is spoken of. The week was bookended by violence and interspersed with the kind of small, wondrous revelations that keep me going as a teacher. My experiences this week have left me far from being in a joking mood, so I won't try to be falsely light-hearted. Instead, I will be direct.

Monday, a student entered my classroom and cried silently as I wrote directions on the board. She had just heard about two incidents from the night before: on Sunday night, a student of mine was shot; he will make a full recovery. In another incident, an alumnus of our high school was murdered. Walls were tagged with impromptu memorials and demonstrations of pride for the neighborhood. The memorials were painted over within hours, and no sign of public grieving remained. Some students, inured to the tragic undertow of this experience, showed no signs of emotion at all.

Wednesday, the track team had a successful practice meet, throwers and runners alike. The next day, on Earth Day, we had a wildly successful school beautification project. My students were dominating review questions in class before going outside to plant trees and clean up trash. It was the kind of day that makes you want to stay at school as long as possible. We were brimming with pride, and rightly so - it's not every day that your students and colleagues make the headline on the district website.

Later in the week the violence continued, with more vague threats and promises left hanging, to be fulfilled at a later time. No modicum of peace can be had when there is such desperation out there. At times I am overcome; I feel I'm only scratching the surface of the experiences my students are having. I have been teaching for 8 months now and I am still at a loss. I continue to throw myself into my work, each day bewildered, waylaid by the enormity of it all.

Here's to a week of confidence in the face of all of this, and higher spirits as well.

Blog of Ages

I'm about to dominate a garden plot, changing the lives of some dandelions in the process, but here's a pair of quick shout-outs and an update on the classroom:

Class Update: Some days in this profession you change lives. Some days, you change fewer lives because attendance is roughly 45%. Because this was essential review/reteaching for the Unit Exam, I'm forcing them to continue (and finish it) on Monday and Tuesday, then test on Wednesday and Thursday. It's tempting to not force them to follow through because we need to "stay on pace," but that is a crock. You wouldn't stop building a tripod at the second leg; why would you stop building knowledge until it too was complete? At the very least, the die is cast.

Shout-Outs:

1. If you are ever in St. Louis, stop by SweetArt bakery on 39th St. in Shaw neighborhood (north of Tower Grove Park). Great brunch and incredible cupcakes, in a beautiful part of the city.
2. If you are reading this blog and saying to yourself, "wow, at this very second I wish I knew poetry translated from the Hebrew," consider your wish granted: check out God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children and Sort of an Apocalypse by the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai.

Anecdote #3

Occasionally a student will ask how your presupposed relationship with another teacher is going. Assumptions will be made, at least one person will say something that should only be heard late at night on HBO, key objectives will be lost, a kitten will drown, and hyperbole will win the day. Relationship-wise, clearly there is only one for me; Chemistry 350 is a life-partner both jealous and insatiable. It definitely wears the pants, but maybe it's better that way, for now.

That said, I woke up today and I was energized. I put in a good 12 hours of work, came home and blasted through some more. Students were challenged and rose to the challenge. I'm raising the bar again tomorrow and I'm pumped to see how this works out.

A Gift from "The Oatmeal"

So after a good day today (killer mastery on exit slips during periods 1 and 3; I ate an incredible microwave pizza; the track team brought its A game at the practice meet), I wanted to leave the fans with a piece of grammatical justice. Courtesy of the website The Oatmeal:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

Last but not least: Happy Birthday, Mom!

Your Chocolate Chips are Ashy

The title is a direct quote from a student after we used chocolate chips to model electrons (for a chemical bonding lesson) and, in the interest of full disclosure, this was completely true. It [Mr. K] puts the lotion on its skin, not its chocolate foodstuffs. This is one of many anecdotes I'll share as a running account, with the above serving as Anecdote #1.

Anecdote #2 - My student wished not one, not two, but seven birth defects on her classmate's hypothetical, unborn child. I wrote them down as diligently as I could, but they included having 6 toes (I prefer 10, but I'm not picky) and hair that was in a permanent cowlick (that's just wrong). Discipline sheets abounded.

I'm still pressing toward greater student achievement in Chemistry, and things are changing for the better in the classroom. Greater planning has led to less panic and more focus on the students, but we still must deal with the powerful externalities of the system, such as raucous milk fights (why wasn't I invited?) and dreadfully low attendance (38% in Period 7). It becomes cliche in our line of work, but masochism be damned, my students are too important for me to pack it in. Like it or not, each day is a reminder of the impossible stakes of the task at hand. The time to be strong is not just now; it is always.

O Brave New World

For this inaugural post on my new blog, Truth and Jonsequences, I would just like to welcome everyone to the site; it's exciting to have the opportunity to share a bit of my life with all of you, and I'm pumped that you are along for the ride. It has been a crazy year, settling down in a new city and leaving a nomadic life behind for the life of a teacher in an inner-city school.

Much of my experience here has been a primer in humility and the art of maintaining dreams in the face of anger and limited bathroom breaks. In a few short months, I've led a life of strange fortune, one that routinely juxtaposes the profound and tragic of the human condition with its most trivial and mundane. I trade in knowledge and I'm paid in the currency of a brighter future. Along the way I get to work and sometimes sleep in business casual dress. It is a wonderful, wonderful life.

If my posts leave you with a hint of the passion I've cultivated, then I have done my job. Please don't hesitate to ask questions, to push back, or to ask for photographic evidence of any outrageous claim I make. (NB: a break-dancing video exists). I wouldn't be here if it weren't for all of the support I received along the way, so thank you. It is my distinct pleasure to take this, the first step of many, into an endeavor at once familiar and unknown. Cheers.