"Mr. Caruthers. You're to loud...."

10th Day of Student teaching? CRAZY. (note: I did not make a student cry, don’t let the photo from Lean on Me fool you!) It was a “B” day so I had my other set of students. They really tried me out today. My cooperating teacher told me to expect disruptive behavior all day due to the excitement of Valentines Day and all the candy they were eating. Now, I woke up expecting school to be normal and what not. I was wrong. The attendance office was flooded with cards, bears, flowers and other Valentines Day novelties to be delivered to students. Parents were ODing (over dosing on these gifts, over doing it-like a drug fiend-to soon?) they went all out for some of these kids. I didn’t understand when I was in middle school. Heck I don’t remember Valentines Day in middle school. The excitement of a holiday really affected my lesson; the kids tried my patience and wore me out. I’m fighting sleep as I type this.
The first class I taught was my B2 class. They were rowdy. Talking back and forth the entire time I was teaching. They were not into school or learning today. In that hour I moved two students, and held one girl after class to speak with her. This girl has one nasty attitude! I’ve been nice to her (Don’t worry I still am!), but she needed a talking to. While I was teaching, the other students would ask a question, or read a slide off the PowerPoint for me. If this girl did not like them she would utter something mean about the student just loud enough for her table and the table next to her to hear. There was giggling during my entire lesson. I even heard this girl say, “Mr. Caruthers is too loud”. Now I don’t mind being made fun of, but when she focused on the students more she got on my nerves. Finally I went over to her, got on one knee, and said: “Stay after class we need to talk”. Rolling her eyes she said “Okay”.
In my short life I have learned that being a “sourpuss” or existing with a stank attitude is a learned behavior. The girl, thinks that is the way to act, she has watched someone act like that and is terribly “miseducated” –that thing, that thing, that thing…Lauryn Hill ya dig? Ok I’ll stop.
At the end of my first class, I had my cooperating teacher stand outside the door and keep the next class out for a few moments. I wasn’t going to be long. I said, “I know I may be boring you, and that I may talk to loud. You are free to feel and think whatever you want (She starts smiling) about your classmates, history, and me. But when you begin to rudely voice that, loud enough for others to hear during class it is disruptive”. She responded, “I know, you are just loud Mr. Caruthers and some people need to shut up,” I told her, “You can feel that way, just voice it outside of class.” After I said that, I put my hand up and said, “High Five?” She fake smiled and gave me a high five, and then went for the Hand sanitizer on her way out. Ouch!? Oh well. I’m sure she is fine now. (You see, I talked to a student that’s why I have a photo of Morgan Freeman and his student from the film “Lean on Me” the girl did not cry that I talked to…)
The next hour also consisted of me moving students around and trying to maintain order.
I made it to my last class of the day. They started off wild but I quickly slowed their “roll”. I said, “Ya’ll need to be quiet! This is yalls warning. Don’t be actin surprised when you get moved. Just move and be quiet. I’m telling you now”. As you can see, I slipped into just a tad bit of Ebonics. Surprisingly they stayed quiet for the first 20 minutes. I moved a boy and two girls who thought they were good at whispering. Nope. I really enjoyed last hour because they were really into the lesson once order was established. We finished early and played Pictionary, reviewing the terms we went over.
They wore me out. As the last hour walked out, my cooperating teacher looked at me smiling and said, “It’s just one of those days, you did a good job, I am impressed with your patience because I couldn’t have done it.” When I think back, I may have felt frustrated but I held it in. The students already know I have a “quick wit” so they didn’t take my sharply smart and short responses as frustration. I also realized, that I didn’t yell at them. If you don’t know me, then I will tell you that many times I have been told that I have a “Radio Voice”. I can project my voice and tweak it so that I sound like some radio personality. So when I ask for silence, the kids hear me. Really, I’m just loud. I learned that it is better to hide my frustration because I loose a lot of connections to my students if I try and lash out at them. I’m sure that if I had called students out, trying to embarrass them I would of gotten my butt “kicked” so to speak. When I would move a student, I would first lean in close and tell them to move so only they could hear my request. I learned in my course studies that if you call a student out, a student will respond negatively (put on a show) in order to “save face”. This is what classrooms are like in America. Students don’t want to take notes, they want everything to be easy, and they want to be entertained. I’m with the last one, but people need a challenge and they need to work for what they want. A lot of people in this country believe that success comes easily. It does not. It is not something that happens without hard work, discipline, drive, or passion. No it does not work like that. I will pass that lesson on to my students. They will be expected to work, as I work hard to prepare lessons that will benefit them, and ultimately their futures. There is nothing wrong with work. My father has often told me that work is a blessing. It is and having the energy to work is also a blessing.
Here is a quote, “Character is much easier kept than recovered.”-Thomas Paine. Very true. I kind of admire Thomas Paine. He said a lot of good things. Working with kids, the day I loose my composure will be the “zenith” of my students experience with me that school year. If I was awesome up until that point, my students will always remember the day I “snapped”. It is just as easy to “snap” as it is to keep one’s character. Both are reflections of one’s actions. In the classroom my cooperating teacher has a poster that says: “People may not always believe what you say, but they will always believe what you do”. You are what you habitually do. If you lie constantly, embrace the honor of being labeled as a liar. If you cheat constantly, wear the title of being known as a cheater proudly. Don’t be surprised. We are all what we do. Have a good night. I need to plan a lesson.