Expulsion

This week, I had to sit in on a meeting where a student (who I have worked closely with for three years) was asked to leave. This 17 year old boy is no angel. He can be rude and crude, he suffers seriously from ADHD (the real kind, not the kind made up by bad parents) and he has been trouble for years, his pediatrician thinks that he's a 14 or 15 year old behaviour-wise. A few years ago I took him on excursions in the city and as we were travelling around by tram, he would run from one window to another and turning around to say "Look at that!", then "Look at that". His head would hang out the window with his tongue lolling, just like a puppy. On these occasions he was also completely obedient and did whatever I asked.

However, at school he would disappear from class, rarely do any work, swear at teachers, refuse to wear uniform, lie continually, jump over tables, climb fences (or anything climable), run around the room and do stupid dangerous things, the latest being throwing an egg at a kid's head in food technology. I don't think he has ever beaten anyone to a pulp, which is usually what gets most students kicked out. He is a smart arse through and through and lives for football (not surprisingly, he is a really fast runner too!), but he also has an endearing quality that makes him hard to dislike. He adores his girlfriend, walks her to school and to class (even though it usually makes him late) and once he trusts and likes you, he will do anything for you.

Having worked with the kid for years, I have seen a huge improvement in his behaviour, his attitude and his respect for teachers - he even opens doors for them now (only the teachers he likes, mind you), not many other kids will do that. But the powers that be decided that the egg incident, and the fact that he's probably failing half his subjects, combined with a number of smaller incidents, meant his time at school was up. Alternative programs are the way to go.

When he was told, he bawled like a baby for at least half an hour. It was heartbreaking seeing this tough, fully grown kid react that way. When the meeting was over he told me that he "just wanted to die" and that his heart hurt. It was awful. His mum told me that he will go home and kick everything in sight, probably breaking everything that he hasn't already broken.

I don't know what he will do. He wants to be at school and in his stubbornness he is refusing to think about any other options. He's already been in trouble with the police for some car stealing shenanigans and he's apparently been pretty violent at home towards his (single) mum. I only hope that his heart will overcome the impulses of his mind eventually. It is sad that after all these years of supporting him, there is not much more I can do. I guess now I can give that attention to someone else who needs it.

Dumb and Dumber

This week my Year 11s have continued writing their blogs. Their writing is basically stream of consciousness so they have horrific spelling and punctuation.

When I reminded one student (I'll name her Dumb) to go through and edit, Dumb said she already had. I asked, "what about making all the "i"s capitals?". She replied, "Why would I put capital letters in the middle of a sentence?" I didn't really know how to respond, I was dumbstruck... (bad pun). She really didn't understand that this was standard practise! When I was about to explain, another student (she can be known as Dumber) leaned over her shoulder and said "I never knew they were meant to be capitals, Miss." Both Dumb and Dumber were completely sincere. So I gave them a lesson they should have learnt by the time they were 10, not 17!

Dumb and Dumber regularly produce comments like this in my class, they frequently leave the rest of the class speechless with their stupid statements, and this is a class that never stops talking!

Last year, we went on a trip through the centre of Australia with 70 Year 10 students. For those that don't know, Australia is BIG and the landscape varied. We live in a city with a mediterranean climate, with four seasons that are generally mild. So travelling in a bus for days to reach endless plains of red desert is a brand new experience for our sheltered suburban kids (and me!).

Being on a bus with 35 students for hours at a time does tend to send the teachers a little insane, so we took it upon ourselves to make the most of their ignorance and gulibility. For example, we told the students that if they wanted to stop the dingoes coming near their tents, they needed to put a circle of shaving cream or flour around them every evening. Even though they told us they knew we were joking, when packing up the next morning there were at least three circles on the ground.

Another time, Dumber asked a teacher while walking through the outback, "Sir, will I see lions out here?".

When we crossed the border from South Australia to the Northern Territory, we informed students that they needed to set their watches back four hours. Dumb did. As their names imply, the NT is directly north of SA, and thus in the same time zone.

Crossing the border also means that visitors have to throw out any fruit they have, this is to stop fruit flies contaminating the landscape. However, the teachers managed to convince a whole bus of students that this also included any fruit flavoured lollies (candy). So the students handed over their sweet stashes and the teachers ended up with a boxful, which they proceeded to consume!

The strange thing is that Dumber is actually quite bright when it comes to school work. It's just that words from her brain bypass the filter system the rest of us have and exit straight out her mouth.

Seeing students in the street

I have made a conscious decision to live a 30 minute drive from my school. The key reason for this is that i don't want to see students out of school. I don't want them serving me in the supermarket and I don't want to bump into them when I go for a walk. (Also the school is 45km out of the city and is pretty much the country - which scares me).

So this morning, Sunday, I walked up the road for coffee and the paper and directly at the end of my street I saw one of my students!

Now we have 1600 students so the chance of finding one who is in my home group, 35km out of her habitat has to be pretty low. Which of the following things do you think I should have done?

a. Cross the street and say hi to her and her family.
b. Wave casually and keep walking.
c. Duck my head and walk quickly in the opposite direction.

I chose C. It was a gut reaction that I didn't even think about. I did not want to break the sanctity of my private space.

I hope she didn't see me.

Cupcakes

One of the students in my Year 11 English class is a pain. He has been since i first taught him in Year 8. He's actually a nice kid, but doesn't ever want to do any work and gets himself into trouble constantly. He does stupid things like start fights over haircuts with kids who will tear him to pieces.

I like him, but lots of teachers can't handle him in their classes. I hope that he makes it to the end of school.

Today it was exciting to be told that things are looking up for this student. As part of his hospitality training, the class entered a cupcake competition with 100s of other students at the top chef training school in the country. The one prize was a day working with the head pastry chef/trainer, worth $1000.

My student didn't win. However, his teacher asked what happened and found out he had made it into the top 6. The chef commented on the perfect presentation of his cupcake and his dedication to the preparation. After some discussion he gave the teacher his name and number and said the student should contact him and join one of his classes for the day - which was equal to first prize.

On hearing about this today, the whole staff room spontaneously cheered as we saw a ray of hope for a troublesome student. Any achievement at our school is celebrated - who knows how long it will be before it happens again?

It was just a cupcake.

But cupcakes do make us happy.

Do you ever want to give up?

Recently I have had a number of people comment on how easy my job is with all the holidays I get. They act as if it is the easiest job in the world and teachers are in it for an easy ride. Clearly they have never known a teacher very well. Not only do I find myself working hard to get students to take learning seriously but I also feel that I'm constantly defending myself to prove that I'm a professional and worthy of respect. I'm not sure if I have the energy to put this amount of effort in for much longer.

Apples for teachers

I've never been given an apple by a student. I have had an apple thrown in my direction (I don't think it was intentional, but its difficult to tell) and have picked up numerous decaying apples from various places in the school grounds (bins are difficult to use apparently), but I've never been given an apple.

Last Christmas, I received 3 christmas cards and a plastic christmas decoration from my students and I was elated. Good thing I'm not in this for the gifts!

My apples are metaphoric ones. The rewards come about in that moment of enlightenment that flickers in the eyes of a student. Or at that rare time when students are so involved in discussion that they don't notice that class is over. Or the look on students' faces when they get good results back after working really hard on something. The apples aren't always frequent, but they are enough to keep me going back for another day.