so i realized this morning that i have yet to update since year two began. understatement of the year..... year 2 > year 1. hahaha. i like to break these updates up into parts so here we go.... part one - the ninth grade academy and the ninth graders part two - what the mess am i teaching? part three - other parts of life.
part 1 - sooooo.... this ninth grade academy, or the "cougar academy for excellence" as it has been deemed has had a couple of kinks in the rollout phase. kink #1 - these kids be crazy. i was told last year by all of my students that "them kids be bad mr. rah, they gon get you" well they were certainly on point in the first half of that statement. ninth graders in general are insane, and at central that is just kicked up a notch. by putting all the ninth graders in the same hall we've successfully avoided the problem of the ninth graders being negatively affected by the repeater tenth graders. however we've discovered that it has created a problem very similar to what you would encounter if you took all the wild animals out of the jungle and stuck them into a small enclosed area after pumping red bull into their system. BUT the good news is.... mr. rah almost kind of knows what he is doing this year. that means they are NOT destroying my life in the same way they did last year. despite the craziness, i absolutely love these kids already. i can tell they really want to learn despite how nuts they are. i have already been called "boring" several times, which is a high praise because i found out last year that just means that the kids don't throw things and get in fights in my room (or at least that's how i make myself feel better about being boring) a few quotes already "dude, you always be talkin bout that ole stanky auburn place."' "why you so country? you from alabama or something?" "dude if you don't let me go to the bathroom im finna go upside somebody's head or pee on yo ole floor"'
Part 2 - what the mess am i teaching? GREAT question..... answer... yikes, i am not sure. the keystone course was a great idea in theory, and i am still really excited about the possibilities. however, there is wayyyy too much fluff in the objectives that i am supposed to teach. i am trying to get rid of the fluff and teach things that are skill based and substantially important for kids lives. i still plan on hitting some algebra standards really hard when it gets closer to test time, and i am excited about that. i have also talked to a couple of veteran teachers down the road at KIPP who are hopefully going to help me get this course on point. i have taught some pretty good things thus far this year, but in this course it's much harder than in math to know whether or not the kids are learning. regardless, i think some good things are on the way with this course. updates will come soon.
part 3 - well, since it is the beginning of the year... there is not a lot going on in life other than teaching. cam newton is a beast (no comments necessary podge). the kids listen to me more than they did last year. i have only written up a couple as opposed to the twenty i had written up at this point last year. i am leading this course at professional development for TFA, which i am pretty excited about. the new TFAs at my school seem to be adjusting well. a kid i had last year has already transferred out of one first year TFA's class. when i asked him why, he informed me "he be a actin just like you. i can't STAND that man." that is all. peace.
