Monday, February 23, 2004
Miss Nicholas
A few students have let me in on the big secret. The four teachers in the Center for International Studies program are all subjects of a complex student rating system.
While this system is completely unscientific, the students assure me that it is very accurate. These students conclude that it is an inevitable fact of teaching that the students will rate you against their other teachers. (As though I was never in high school and this concept is completely foreign to me.) So, naturally, I feign surprise and astonishment and asked them how it worked. After a short conference with two other students, one of them gave me a short list of the most common ways they compare instructors. The six most important areas were as follows:
(1) "hardness" [difficulty of assigned work]
(2) "harshness" [use of discipline]
(3) "saying but not doing" [follow through with disciplinary threats]
(4) "lame or cool" [whether the instructor is likeable overall]
(6) "hotness" [hotness]
I am not very remarkable in any of these areas apparently. Overall, my "weirdness" and over enthusiasm about topics like the national GDP and indexing of currency exchange rates has me leaning more towards lame than cool. Excitingly though, I am only slightly less hot than the "hotness" category winner, Ms. Gates, the geography and out-door education teacher. It was speculated that although I am the youngest member of the faculty, I might not be the front runner in this category because Mr. Hanson recently spiked up his hair and trimmed his beard which stole some of the girls votes from me. But, they all agree, it is most likely due to the fact that the sophomores often refer to me as "Miss Nicholas." I guess this caused me to lose a portion of votes from the male students because registering me as the hottest teacher would carry with it some obvious social drawbacks.
Well, since the sophomores seem to have torpedoed my rating in number (6), they might find that during my latte [hazelnut] wired International Business lessons I will be spending my energy creating a very effective and unwelcome combination of (2) and (3) instead. ;)
A few students have let me in on the big secret. The four teachers in the Center for International Studies program are all subjects of a complex student rating system.
While this system is completely unscientific, the students assure me that it is very accurate. These students conclude that it is an inevitable fact of teaching that the students will rate you against their other teachers. (As though I was never in high school and this concept is completely foreign to me.) So, naturally, I feign surprise and astonishment and asked them how it worked. After a short conference with two other students, one of them gave me a short list of the most common ways they compare instructors. The six most important areas were as follows:
(1) "hardness" [difficulty of assigned work]
(2) "harshness" [use of discipline]
(3) "saying but not doing" [follow through with disciplinary threats]
(4) "lame or cool" [whether the instructor is likeable overall]
(6) "hotness" [hotness]
I am not very remarkable in any of these areas apparently. Overall, my "weirdness" and over enthusiasm about topics like the national GDP and indexing of currency exchange rates has me leaning more towards lame than cool. Excitingly though, I am only slightly less hot than the "hotness" category winner, Ms. Gates, the geography and out-door education teacher. It was speculated that although I am the youngest member of the faculty, I might not be the front runner in this category because Mr. Hanson recently spiked up his hair and trimmed his beard which stole some of the girls votes from me. But, they all agree, it is most likely due to the fact that the sophomores often refer to me as "Miss Nicholas." I guess this caused me to lose a portion of votes from the male students because registering me as the hottest teacher would carry with it some obvious social drawbacks.
Well, since the sophomores seem to have torpedoed my rating in number (6), they might find that during my latte [hazelnut] wired International Business lessons I will be spending my energy creating a very effective and unwelcome combination of (2) and (3) instead. ;)
Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Good Morning
It's 7:17am on the first day back to school after a 4 day weekend. Nechama, a freshman who likes to come and visit me before first hour begins, has come in to complain about her lack of sleep and "have breakfast." This breakfast is compsed of a single vinyl-coated paperclip. And although the paperclips on my desk come in about a dozen colors, she prefers to munch on only the pink and white ones. They taste better.
Everythings back on track here.
It's 7:17am on the first day back to school after a 4 day weekend. Nechama, a freshman who likes to come and visit me before first hour begins, has come in to complain about her lack of sleep and "have breakfast." This breakfast is compsed of a single vinyl-coated paperclip. And although the paperclips on my desk come in about a dozen colors, she prefers to munch on only the pink and white ones. They taste better.
Everythings back on track here.
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Spanglish
I'm in an environment where 95% of the high school students are hispanic (from a Spanish speaking background and culture). The whispers in the classroom and the teasing in the halls are mostly in Spanish here. Culturally, it's hard to get along if you don't know even a smidgeon of Spanish (knowing the bad words in Spanish is important so you know when to send kids to their dean ;).
So, I'm picking up an odd form of ghetto Spanglish here. Most of the kids have difficulty with some English nuances like the use of "have" and "got" and "isn't" versus "ain't", etc. But, what is most worrying about this is that I am now starting to pick up their speaking style both in and out of the classroom.
The other day I was at my Mom's house and said, "I don't got enough paint for my bedroom." My mother blinked a few times and repeated my statement just to make sure she heard me correctly. I denied that I would have ever said such a thing and added that she should "step off." Ahem.
I'm in an environment where 95% of the high school students are hispanic (from a Spanish speaking background and culture). The whispers in the classroom and the teasing in the halls are mostly in Spanish here. Culturally, it's hard to get along if you don't know even a smidgeon of Spanish (knowing the bad words in Spanish is important so you know when to send kids to their dean ;).
So, I'm picking up an odd form of ghetto Spanglish here. Most of the kids have difficulty with some English nuances like the use of "have" and "got" and "isn't" versus "ain't", etc. But, what is most worrying about this is that I am now starting to pick up their speaking style both in and out of the classroom.
The other day I was at my Mom's house and said, "I don't got enough paint for my bedroom." My mother blinked a few times and repeated my statement just to make sure she heard me correctly. I denied that I would have ever said such a thing and added that she should "step off." Ahem.
