Biggest Distractions

The great thing about building a good relationship with students (especially high school students) is that they'll usually tell you the truth if you ask them a question.  One good example was my end of year survey last year.  I asked about the biggest drawback to having iPads in class.  Almost every student said it was a distraction.  More specifically, games and chat apps were a distraction.

We went into the 1:1 program with the arguably naive notion that we would leave everything open and teach the kids how to use everything responsibly.  We greatly underestimated a teenager's ability to exercise self control.  The typical freshman is incapable of staying on task if their friend sends them an IM from another class saying, "HAHA, just beat your high score in Temple Run!" (This is an actual example, by the way.)  So by the end of the year I was spending lots of time reminding them what they were supposed to be doing and they spent lots of time trying not to get caught playing games.  They were very honest about their inability to ignore these distractions.

As a result, my one request for this year was locking the app store.  Period.  No access, no iTunes, no students adding anything.  So far it's made a huge difference in time on task, project completion, and grades.  Freshmen don't know what they're missing and sophomores and juniors can't say it's a bad idea since it came from them.

What Makes it all Worth It...

When people find out I teach high school, they usually have some sort of negative comment about teenagers, and how they can't imagine how hard my job must be.  I have been lucky that no one has treated me with the disrespect teachers in America are facing at this pivotal moment in (education) history.  I tell these people that yes, teenagers do suck sometimes, but most of the time they are really fun to be around.  Yes, they can be moody and disrespectful, but they can also be really sweet and caring.  Yes, I have had students cuss at me, but I have also had them bring me gifts from school field trips, or bring me ceramic frogs from their annual Christmas trips to Mexico to add to my classroom collection.  For each kid that's driven me crazy over the past 7 years, there are 10 who brought me to tears at graduation.

I work harder than almost anyone I know and leave work every day emotionally, mentally, and physically drained.  If someone asked me why I do it, this would be my reply:

I had a student who had to live alone his senior year because his parents had to work out of town all week.  He came into class worried about how he would eat because he didn't know how to cook anything.  We got online and found easy recipes he could handle.  Another day he came in angry that a teacher had accused him of smoking pot at school and he'd gotten in her face.  I just said, "I know it wasn't you, but you shouldn't have handled it like that.  You're better than that."  He looked me in the eye and said, "Thanks Miss, you're right, I am, but sometimes I need to come back and hear you say it." I bawled at his graduation like he was my own and when he introduced me to his mom, she hugged me crying and said, "Thank you for being his mom when I couldn't be there."  He sends me a texts regularly and I got one last week (two years after he graduated) to tell me he got a promotion at work and he wants to take me to lunch.

THAT'S why I do this. 

The only number that can measure my success as a teacher is the number of students who have touched my life and whose lives I've touched.  No test score can do that.