The Positive

I feel kind of regretful about my previous post. The school has been going through some struggles with negativity coming from community members and some teachers regarding the new leadership. And I think for a while the school has been battling a widespread assumption that it is the worst in the city, which you can imagine what that does to the psyche of the students and faculty. A mindset shift needs to occur with the community and more especially with the students because its a lie people have chosen to believe. I believe we have a hard-working principal with a great vision for the school, intelligent students, and there are some great teachers doing great things in their classrooms. The students have been fed this lie and they've given up on their chances for success because they're "stuck" at this school. The negativity in my last post and I'm sure in my attitude the past few weeks hasn't really helped.

I think we have experienced some successes recently. With the added security in the hallways, the negativity was heightened and it got out that students were planning some kind of rebellion/riot on Friday. They were planning to have everyone wearing whatever they want (out of dress code) along with some other nebulous stunts involving eggs. I think the principal decided to make an announcement the day before that the students would be rewarded for getting to class on time and not fighting and they could wear jeans on Friday. We went to a lockdown procedure in the middle of the day, and nothing ended up happening. The principal has been preaching to the students a lot since she has gotten the chance when students who are late to class are taken to the auditorium in a "hall sweep". The students need to know that they have teachers that care for them and work hard every day to make sure that they are given the best opportunities.

I feel like I'm in a tough position here because my job is still overwhelming to me, but I need to be positive and feign some confidence to help improve morale. I have had some successes in my classroom though. I was finally able to check out books to each student this past week and that will make it easier to assign homework. I also reinstated a positive rewards system that I let go back in early October. Recognizing positive behavior is hard for me to focus on during a lesson, but it really improves my management. Plus there's really only one week left until I get 2 weeks for Christmas. The week after this one is like midterm week so most of my classes will be taking exams. I'm also proud that I never took a single sick day off so far and I've been teaching every day. Hopefully over the break I'll be able to make next semester a little less about just surviving and a little more about maximizing my effectiveness. I still feel like education right now is the most important issue for the future success of our country, but I don't know if I would best make an impact as a teacher or if I would help the movement better through some other means.