Student Teaching - Week #13

by Rebecca Verhage - Walsh Elementary

For those of you with any experience in teaching or working with middle school students, you know that you can never guess what will come out of their mouths next. Here are a few conversations I've had with students in the last week that have made me both laugh and reflect on why I chose to go into teaching. I hope you enjoy!

Conversation One

A teacher shared a conversation she overheard during the afterschool program. The first student had gotten in trouble during science class and had to stay after for detention.  When students serve a detention they must fill out a reflection sheet that requires them to think and talk about what happened that led to their detention.  Then they have a conversation with the teacher for the last five to ten minutes of the detention about what went wrong and how to change it. The student came back to class after having this conversation and was asked by another student what happened.

Student One: I had to talk with Ms. G about what happened in class.

Student Two: They’re (the teachers) really nice to you after you get in trouble aren’t they?

Student One: Yeah

Kids are so smart sometimes. Maybe that’s why the students keep getting detentions. It’s a sure way to get some one-on-one attention from the teachers, even if it is negative attention.

Conversation Two

One student constantly throws away pieces of paper, makes paper shooting devices out of pens, and is just generally a disruption. As the students were settling in their seats and waiting for class to start, I noticed him rolling up a piece of paper.  I decided to nip it in the bud and asked him to give me the piece of paper.  He sounded frustrated, and a bit dramatic, when he said, “Why you always got to take my stuff?” He was referring to the other pieces of paper and pens that I had taken away from him in the past. He then asked, “How would you like it if I took away your ring from you?”  I decided to leave it and talk to him about it later when another girl at his table piped up. “That’s completely different; that would be stealing.” I love it when my students back me up.

Conversation Three

I was beginning class and passing out the homework when one of my students asked, “Miss Verhage, can you be our eighth grade teacher?” A couple other students chimed in agreement. While I was flattered, I was also a little leery. It makes me nervous when students like me. It’s not that I don’t want them to, because I do, but I also want to make sure that they don’t just like me because I’m too easy on them or because they think they can get away with more when I’m teaching. Hopefully it is true that like me for the right reasons. 

Conversation Four

This week the fire alarm was set off accidentally by one of our students. It was during the passing period so it didn’t really disrupt class, but of course, the students were all over the place as a result.  We had one student who took complete control of the situation, trying to calm his peers down saying, “It’s alright guys, it’s alright. I’m just so hot; I set off the fire alarm.” Typical middle school boy.

Conversation Five

This Friday I had the chance to hang out with some of the eighth graders after school. I was on my way to the bus stop when I met up with a boy on his bike waiting for a couple girls from his class to hang out. I stopped and said “Hi” to him and asked him what he was up to. He told me I should wait to say “Hi” to the girls when they came out, so I did. They came a couple minutes later bearing cheese fries which they insisted I try. They were actually pretty good. I felt privileged to be included in their group as a teacher even though I only know them from seeing them in the halls because none of them are my actual students. 

Now the boy had to wait for his sister to come grab his bike and the girls were on their way to deliver some cheese fries to a friend back at school, so I said goodbye to them and was about to leave too. Then the boy asked me something; it was obvious he wanted company while he waited. He’s quite the social butterfly. So I stopped and talked to him for a while. He peppered me with questions. His first was, “How do you like teaching?”

I replied that I like it a lot. I love being with kids and getting to know them. I told him that all the kids are good kids; even the ones that at times drive me crazy or are disruptive in class are really great kids. Middle schoolers' always keep life interesting.

He laughed at this and told me, “Miss Verhage, you make me laugh.” He then asked me about my family, where I lived, do I like living in Pilsen, how many roommates I had and how big our kitchen was. Did I cook, what do I do on the weekends, what nationality I am, and his follow up question to that was an awkward, “So are you Caucasian?”

Then the question that I was surprised to hear him ask. “Miss Verhage, what do you believe?” So I told him that I was a Christian and that I had grown up in a Christian home where we went to church every Sunday and we did devotions together every night after dinner. What he asked next was very insightful I thought. He said, “Yeah me too, but what about as an adult; what do you believe?” He understood that sometimes you just go along with what your family does until you’re out of the house, and that it doesn’t matter much what your family believes so much as what you yourself believe. After I answered, he told me a little about his family. How his father was a pastor now but that he didn’t grow up a Christian. His grandma was Catholic and his grandfather was Muslim. He told me how his father became a Christian the year he was born shortly after his grandfather and uncle died.

He told me other things too. He comes from a large family like mine, with six siblings.  He also told me what it is like to be the second youngest. They apparently have a ton of pets. It was neat to get a little insight into this student’s life.

Student Teaching - Week #12

by Rebecca Verhage - Walsh Elementary

Home Visit

The girls had a volleyball game and one of our students wanted to stay after school for it, but needed a ride home. My teacher offered him a ride as long as it was OK with his parents, which it was. After the game, my teacher told me she would take me home too since it was on the way. When we pulled up in front of his apartment, she looked at me and asked, “Are you ready Miss Verhage?” So I hopped out with her. Apparently we were going to make a home visit.

We followed the boy up two flights of stairs to his home. My teacher told him to tell his mother we were here. As he opened the door, his dog raced out and happily jumped around us sniffing and wanting to be petted. There was a bit of a commotion as he told his parents we were there. His dad went to hide in the other room and the rest of us tried to get the dog inside. As we entered, I looked around and noticed how small the place was. We were immediately in the kitchen which was a bit of a disaster. There were dishes with scraps of food on them on the table, and it generally looked like it could use a good cleaning. When my student walked in, he instantly picked up his nine month old sister and kissed her on the forehead. He looked like a little father the way he bounced her and held her close. His little brother ran up to him wearing an oversized t-shirt that could have been his dad’s and nothing else. He asked if he could use his brother’s tablet and after a little teasing, he obliged.  His little sister was there too; she was a third grader and was wearing clothes that could use a bit a washing.

The father works at a bar and the parents often go out to the clubs on the weekends leaving the boy to take care of his three younger siblings. You could tell too, by the way he cared for them little ones. My teacher had never spoken to the parents because she never had the correct phone number.  Instead she had always gone through the grandmother. Now this student is a sometimes a trouble maker, but we weren’t there to talk about that.

You see, this boy had a bit of a break down a couple weeks earlier where he and my teacher were talking about his behavior with his grandma. During the conversation, my teacher asked him when was the last time he had hugged his dad and when was the last time he had been told by his parents that they loved him. He shook his head and said that he couldn’t remember. His grandma said the same thing. My teacher encouraged him to try telling his dad that he loved him that weekend.  When he came to school on Monday, and my teacher asked how it went, he said his father just asked him what was wrong with him and why he was acting so strange. (It’s no wonder kids act up. They just want love and attention and if they can’t get it positively, then they go for the next best thing.)

We could tell his mother was a bit apprehensive when we entered the apartment. She was expecting to hear what her son had done wrong this time, but instead my teacher praised him. She told his mom what a good kid he was, admitting that he had his moments, but that we loved him and the other students loved him. We were there for about fifteen minutes and the whole time my cooperating teacher praised him and as she got to know the family better.

I’m glad I was able to be a part of that visit and it was cool to see the mom’s demeanor toward her son change as she heard the teacher say good things about him.  (And the boy beamed with pride!) I don’t know if anything will change with his parents but it meant a lot to him.

The next day at school the boy told the entire class how we both went to his house the night before. He told them how his dog attacked us (a little bit of an exaggeration) and how we met his little sister.  He was baskin’ in the lime light!

Grief Awareness Day

Francisco "Javi" Merino
January 2, 1993 - November 7, 2012

Thursday was the first anniversary of the death of a boy named Javi. He was nineteen when he died, just one house down from where he lived, from seven gunshot wounds. Javi attended elementary school at Walsh and was known by some of our students. Four of the students at our school either saw the shooting or were there to help move him to the car as they tried to get him to the hospital. Javi’s death marked the 449^th death in Chicago last year, but was never reported on the news. To this day, no suspect is in custody, so in a lot of ways, these students never got any closure.

A couple of weeks ago, the math teacher was giving her lesson and somehow Javi’s name was brought up during the discussion. Four male students and one female broke down crying. These kids obviously hadn’t dealt with their grief or really had the chance to talk about it. The teacher decided to allow time for students to share about loses in their lives. The counselor planned the day with both large and small group sessions in order to provide different types of opportunities for students to grieve.

Javi’s mom was there and spoke with some of the students who knew him in a small group of their own. I later found out about some of that conversation. Javi was good friends with the older brother of one of our students. That brother was involved in gangs and drugs during high school until Javi came alongside him and encouraged him to get away from that stuff. Our student thanked Javi’s mom sharing that “Javi helped my brother be a brother to me.” After Javi’s death, the brother relapsed. Javi’s mom shared that it was Javi’s dream to get kids off the streets and working. He wanted to open a barber shop with lots of chairs so he could give everyone jobs because if people were working, there would be less gang violence. She spoke to the students asking them to help her carry out Javi’s dream. She told them they needed to stay away from drugs and gangs because those things don’t help and to work hard to do something meaningful with their lives…for Javi.

During the large group session, students and teachers alike shared the grief in their lives. One teacher shared that her brother had been killed, shot by a thirteen year old boy who had been promised a new pair of shoes if he killed this man. For a new pair of shoes, a widow was made and three children lost their father. My teacher shared that it was this incident that reaffirmed her desire to work with youth at this critical age to help them understand the choices they are making. It was a powerful story.

I was half shocked at all the examples of gang violence or other losses these students could name. A lot of these students have had a dad walk out on them or have parents who are separated and who are conflicted about it, being angry at their parents, but still loving them because they are their parents. One student shared with me that his cousin, a seventeen year old, who lived with him and his family had been shot two years ago in front of his school. He told me that they used to play basketball and video games together. He said they did not really talk about his cousin at home anymore but he would like to talk about him. It’s sad to think that these kids don’t feel able to share what they are going through with their parents or even other adults. However, it was really cool to see how all the students came together to cry and comfort each other. As my teacher pointed out, while most people did cry, it was the tough guys that were bawling, proving that there is always a reason behind their rough exterior.

On a bit of a lighter note, during the small group session I was in, we did some journaling first and then kids had the opportunity to share what they wrote. The first child to share spoke about how he deals with grief. He said that sometimes he gets really angry with his parents and that he draws as a way to relieve that stress. For instance, if he were mad at his mom, he would draw a dinosaur with a big nose and if he were mad at his dad, he would draw a Teletubby with a big belly. It was a great way to lighten the mood a bit because no one can listen to that and not laugh. I love this kid.

While this day came about as a result of the students who needed to deal with the death of Javi, I think it ended up being good for all students regardless of whether they knew him or not. In the future, they are going to try to do more things like this and more than just once a year because they want school to be the kids’ community, a safe place for them to come and share what they are going through and find support from friends and staff. And that’s what a school should be.  These kids need to deal with all the stuff that goes on in their lives before they are able to learn anyway.   As one teacher put it, “While I want them to learn and be prepared for further education, I want to teach them to be good human beings first. If they go away with nothing else, that is the most important thing I could teach them. There is already too much hurt in this world, we don’t need to add to it.”

Student Artwork

Art Event of the Week

Timeline Theatre

This week we went to the Lifeline Theater production of “A Raisin in the Sun.” It was a wonderful production with great actors. I have to admit that I was a little partial to the child in the play because he was super cute and funny even though he had a fairly small role. The story was especially interesting to me because it tied into what we are teaching in class this week. Our class is starting a poetry unit and we decided to use one of Maya Angelou’s poems. Then as we started planning, we decided that having some background on her would help the children understand the poem, and that led to us planning an author study where we looked at multiple of her poems would be a great way to set up the unit. Maya Angelou played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement, working with both Malcolm X and Dr. King. In the play, the African-American family is confronted with racial discrimination and segregation as they plan to move to an area where there are no blacks.  They are offered money if they agree not to move.  The family must then decide what is most important, the badly needed money or standing up for their rights. I enjoyed the story a lot. There were many laughable moments but also some really sad ones. The characters had hard lives but in the end I think they all realized that family is what is important and that it is important to be proud of whom you are.  

Student Teaching - Week #11

By Rebecca Verhage – Walsh Elementary

It is crazy to think that my time here in Chicago is almost up. The students just finished their first quarter this last week and for the most part, they did pretty well. Those that didn’t do well didn’t because they hadn’t turned in assignments. The students worked really hard near the end of the semester to bring their grades up a letter grade or so since their seventh grade scores are what determine their acceptance into the high school of their choice. I never realized that the Chicago Public School system was so much like applying to colleges where you can actually go and do school visits and all of that. However, it does get students thinking about their future at an early age which is probably a good thing.

This week at school I was asked by one of my students to go to her volleyball game. It was only their second or third game of the season and they were going to be playing a neighborhood school. They were nervously chatting about it during the day because their opponents were a coed team that could spike! The other team was pretty good and I could see why our girls would be intimidated to play them.  

The science teacher and I went to the game together, but despite our efforts to cheer them on, our girls lost the match. They did have some good rallies during the game though. And we weren’t the only fans either. I was surprised at how many students are either involved in sports or were there to support their peers by cheering from the stands.

Some of my students were sitting next to us at the game and it was hilarious to hear their comments and cheers as we watched. One boy pointed out a guy on the opposing team and was telling me that he was a part of a local gang. His comment was, “I can’t believe a guy that’s in a gang would do something as feminine as play volleyball!” That comment made me think of how important having after-school programs and sports are for kids at this age. It can keep them out of trouble and hopefully out of gang activity too. Also, I was quick to try to refute his statement about volleyball being just for girls by pointing out that it is an Olympic sport. He didn’t buy it. All I can say is that there is never a dull moment around these kids. There is no way of knowing what things will come out of their mouth. That’s what makes teaching middle school so much fun!

While I was at the volleyball game, one of my boys asked if I was going to go to a basketball game too since I made it to the volleyball game. Of course since he asked, I had to go.

I took one of my teacher friends with me, and we were both impressed by the skill of the students. Our school’s security guard is their coach, and he did a really good job with the team. I appreciated how every player had a significant and mostly equal amount of playing time. From what I could see, their coach didn’t differentiate playing time based on skill or grade level but played them all so they could all game experience. The only exception to the amount of playing time allotted was the point guard who played most of the game. It was fun seeing my students excel in basketball when some of the same students struggle academically at times. It was also fun to see a pair of brothers interact on the court when they are more likely to avoid each other in the halls.  I think basketball is a really good outlet and motivational tool for most of these kids. It gives them the drive to work hard in school so they can play and teaches them to work together to achieve their goals. I also think it is important for me as a future teacher to realize what is important to these students so I can find ways to connect and relate what we are doing in school to things they will understand and find important.