Friday!

Even though this school is great, it's still nice that it's Friday.
We do have an obscenely large number of days off each school year, all things considered, but at least our students here attend for about 40 more minutes each day than the average NYC high school student.
That is critical for getting folks to read and write more.

A near altercation occurred in 10D yesterday. An Albanian boy took a blue ball from his bag for some reason and somehow a small Dominican boy ended up passing it around under desks with his friends. The Albanian boy--Kosovar, actually--tried to get it back to no avail. He then told the Dominican boy, "I got you after school"==with stern eyes.

A Yemeni boy, who looks about 30 years old and is supposedly married and moving back to Yemen at some point in near future, then came in with the Albanian boy: "I  got you after school," he said to the small boy, purely without humor.

I pulled the Albanian and Yemeni boys out and had them speak with Mrs. C. next door. The Albanian boy came back in and asked me meekly if he could rejoin class. The Yemeni boy must've been unrepentant because Mrs. C. kept him out.

Thankfully, nothing seemed to come from this. It was sad seeing this in our school. In my old school it would've been the order of the day, in fact not much of a situation at all comparatively speaking, but here those things are not in abundance, thankfully.

All else is pretty well, though.
Entire campus was on a "hard lockdown" earlier, as a black briefcase with duct tape was found outside the building. No student was allowed to leave rooms they were in. This made our kids about 12 minutes late in leaving the cafeteria and students were crazy while arriving late (delays and adverse situations like that tend to always set off teenagers). But, as they say, all's well that ends well.

Things are Moving

Now we're starting to go.
Every classroom just got two brand new "short" bookcases and three round wooden tables.
Ms. W. and I, who I share the sophomore Global Studies room with, have assigned classroom leadership roles for each class:

~Timer
~Tech
~Sign-ups Organizer (for weekly Unison Reading groups)
~Intern (for most trusted & reliable student in each class)

Yesterday, in the midst of a sophomore class I looked around. To one side, a student explained to others at her table the meaning of an English word.
Next to me, students worked together reading in unison---"Okay, 1-2-3..."
Across the way, a group of Dominican boys--only one of whom understands much English--read in unison, without much supervision.
Two students on a computer in the back of the  room were not trying to sneak onto Twitter or look at junkfood on the internet. Instead, they researched the meaning of "cultural diffusion." Earlier, a boy alone at the same computer was reading about Leonardo da Vinci.

More than half a dozen students so far have borrowed classroom films since the sign-up sheet went up at the end of last week.
And they have not even gone in yet for the typical Hollywood-type films. Or even the historical films from U.S. history, such as those regarding Malcolm X or Martin Luther King, Jr. Rather, they've been watching History Channel films about Alexander the Great (a Bengali boy), the Incan Empire (a full blooded Incan girl from Ecuador), Islam (a Muslim boy with Kosovar roots), & the story behind the battle of the 300 in ancient Greece (a Haitian girl).

A fascinating array of students.

A boy from Yemen brought in his country's flag today to display within our classroom collection. Last week, the Muslim boy learning more about his religion brought in full-size flags of both Albania & Kosovo (a very unusual find, I assume, in most parts of the United States, but not necessarily in this neighborhood). Soon thereafter, two other boys from Yemen came in with the flagbearer, grinning widely as they looked up at their homeland's flag--a nation now plunged into turmoil.

Highlight of the Day

Not all is perfect here, however. Class 10D is being kept behind after school today due to bad behavior in a number--if not all--of their classes. There are many great kids in this sophomore class, but a handful that is disrupting share time--when a student who has conferenced one-on-one with the teacher presents his or her strengths, challenges, resolutions, & a goal(s) to the class.

Many thanks to the teacher who is facilitating this special after school time wtih the students. In my other school, their relatively minor disruptions would not merit nearly as much attention, with riots breaking out in the halls. But here, disrupting a share is serious business.

Meanwhile, the real highlight of the day involved two girls in class 10A. These girls speak little to no English--one speaking more than the other. In the midst of my mini-lesson comparing medieval and Renaissance art, both girls volunteered to share their comments with the entire class. It was incredibly endearing, especially, to hear one girl (brand new to this country) who confidently spoke broken English as she compared a painting of Jesus from the Middle Ages with Michelangelo's David.

And it was extremely promotive to have a girl on the other side of the room chiming in to help the girl translate words from Spanish into English.

Welcome to a New Style...

The blog is back! However, this may be temporary. Hopefully, my new website domain will gets its problems ironed out soon and get up and running (www.radicalbronxteaching.com).
Until then, welcome to the new style.

Bronx, New York. Dispatch #1 from the 2012-2013 school year.

Just came from class 10D. Tenth graders. It seems like most of them got the message today. A few students interrupted a student's share last Friday and my mini-lesson emphasized this early on in class. Of course, I sometimes misinterpret how many students understand what I'm saying in class.

80% of our students are ELL's. English Language Learners. Unlike my last two schools in the Bronx, there is a diversity of languages represented here.

One story from our first two days of school:

In the last few minutes of a sixty minute class I realized a freshman girl in a hijab (head covering) had no idea what we'd been discussing for the period. I immediately felt bad. A boy near her had not understood either, but I discovered that sooner and had a female student, also in a hijab, next to him help translate things into Bengali. I asked this translator if she could translate for the other girl.

"Mister, she doesn't speak my language."

"What language does she speak?" I asked.

"Arabic."

I then asked another girl wearing a hijab, sitting on other side of the room, if she could help translate into Arabic.

"I speak Urdu," she replied.

I then asked the girl next to her what language she speaks; perhaps she could assist.

"I speak French," she responded.

Meanwhile, a small group of Spanish-only speakers sat up front. Several do not yet speak English. Most have lived in the United States for only a couple of months, or less.

This is my new school!
Students are fully immersed in both the English language, reading aloud, and sharing in front of the class.
Students take leadership roles from day one.
Students are responsible for being promotive of others at all times.
Students must conference with teachers one-on-one.
School structure is uniform across classes.
Hallway discipline is maintained and enforced.

"Promotive Richard" is my new name for you. "My man." [a comment I just heard Mr. S. make to a student in hallway]

There will be a lot innovative ideas shared in this blog. This information will be revolutionary in many ways for public schools. Perhaps even more so for public schools in New York City, as they are filled with many students who come in reading and writing below grade level--sometimes dramatically so.

Please subscribe and stay tuned for the new style of this new school year!