The fall months of exhaustion are worth it

Rachael Warecki, an English teacher at Locke Launch to College Academy, writes:

There’s no denying that it’s that time of year: October and November are the toughest months for teachers, mostly because the honeymoon phase between students and teachers has officially ended. Even my most well-behaved classes are beginning to push back a little bit, whining whenever they’re asked to move to a new task.

Group work? "Miss, I don’t like working in groups."

Silent reading? "Miss, I hate reading."

Note-taking? "Oh, no, Miss! Not notes! Notes are so boring!"

I feel like I’ve aged about eight years over the last five weeks. Yet, over these same last five weeks, many of my students seem to have firmly bought into a school culture of achievement. More important, they seem to have bought into the idea that they can individually achieve. My 12th-graders were genuinely excited to sign tutoring contracts, which, in turn, genuinely surprised me — I’d never have guessed they wanted to stay after school to do work. My football players were the most eager of the bunch. They came at 3 p.m., insisting that they had to leave at 3:45 for practice, but stayed until well after 4 p.m. to finish their personal statements. (I even gave them a two-minute warning at 3:43; they just nodded their heads and kept writing.)

Students are also holding one another accountable for success. Every week, the football players bring me an academic eligibility sheet to sign — if they’re passing their classes, they’re allowed to play. A few weeks ago, one of my second-period 10th-graders stopped me in the hall so I could sign his sheet. One of my third-period 10th-graders chimed in to say that he needed his sheet signed, too, and asked what his grade was. I told him it was a D, since he hadn’t completed his classwork.

Before I could say another word, my second-period 10th-grader — an A student — stepped in. “What are you doing, getting a D in Ms. Warecki’s class?” he asked. “Work harder. Get your grade up.”

The other day, some of my second-period students gave their classmate a hard time for not participating in group work. “Next time, participate sooner, OK?” they told him. “Even gangsters need to know English!”

Peer pressure: it’s a wonderful thing.

In all seriousness, when I hear these conversations, I know the October exhaustion was worth it. Who cares if I have to occasionally send a student to the office for yelling sexually explicit remarks during an exam? I’m winning some of my daily battles, and, if my students want each other to achieve, I might just win the yearlong war.

Comments

[MaryB]

Great post, Rachael. this could be a book someday.