What I learned today.

I learned today that sometimes educators can be as imature as their students. It is really interesting to me how some teachers can hold a grudge against their students like they are children as well. I know that it is human nature to get our way, but sometimes we just have to get ahold of ourselves and get over it. These are teenagers after all and their brains are not developed, so we shouldn't take things personally and we definatly shouldn't hold a grudge.

What I thought about today

Today I realized how much stress can affect your performance and that I myself am not immune to it. For instance, I'm not sure if we are supposed to be doing this log daily or weekly. The stress of working 10 hour days, carting teenagers around and completing two courses is starting to get to me and I think it has caused me to get "dementia". This is not all bad though, because it will give me empathy when it comes time for me to deal with students in my classroom that are going through stress at home and forget to do their homework or to study for a test. Stress really does mess with our performance and students in Urban schools are often under an extreme amount of stress. From financial worries, baby sitting their siblings, or just not getting gunned down on their way home from school they often have issues that are more pressing to them then getting into college or remembering to turn in their homework.

Urban Studies

Today I realized that tall boys are often discriminated against in school. They are seen as a threat to teachers so they get sent to alternative school or they get disciplined for small infractions making them so discouraged that they end up dropping out of school. Actually the boy that was cutting my hair was 6'5" and he started talking to me about his experience in high school and how he acted out at the alternative school just so he could stay there because he was treated so much better at the alternative school then he was at high school. My own son is a large 16 year old kid and I have noticed that since he started growing his school discipline has gotten out of control. Little infractions are made into suspensions and teachers use comments like "he intimdates me". I have learned from this that kids are just kids, no matter how big they appear to be, and they all need to be treated fairly and we need to check our own insecurities at the door.