Changes in Mask Mandate

 Today is the first day that students can choose to wear a mask or not. I was very curious about who would and would not mask. In my first-period class, I had one student out of about twenty who masked intermittently. I went to look at Mr. B's students, and only one had a mask on! Walking around the building, it seems like about half of our students are masked.

Update on "Rob"

 A while ago I wrote about a student on the Autism spectrum who was not doing well. Since then, we have connected more than he has seemingly connected with other teachers. 

A couple of weeks ago, while we were working on emulating Jason's Reynold's style from Long Way Down, we had a few extra minutes at the end of class. Sometimes, when we have a few extra minutes at the end of class, we play "hot seat," where one student sits on a tall chair while the others ask serious and silly questions in an effort to get to know each other. At the end of class that day, "Rob" was in the classroom while other students were in the collaborative/community space. I asked him if he had done "hot seat" and if he was willing. He said he was. I asked him to choose the tall seat or his regular seat. He chose the tall seat. His peers asked him questions, and he engaged with each one, sometimes in silly ways. It was a fun time, and I am really proud of him for putting himself out there like that.

I emailed his mother, Intervention Specialist, and ParaProfessional, as that felt like a big breakthrough.

Just yesterday, we had a meeting about Rob's progress. It sounds like he might be pushed towards Rockbridge, the online extension program. If he leaves, I'll miss him in our class.

Writing Lab Traffic and Student Concerns

 We were very busy in the writing lab today. A number of Freshmen from the "choose your own adventure" course came to have their narrative stories read. Today is also their due date. I wonder if their teacher required them to come during class. I disagree with this practice because when a student is in my class, it is my responsibility to help that student. The rush of students may have also come on their own accord during their study halls, but that typically does not happen. I do wish that the students could plan ahead a little more so that they did not feel as rushed from their own procrastination. 

I've very concerned about two of my students in my last period. One, I'll call her Emma, is failing 4 of her 6 classes and is absent, late, and/or skipping multiple times each week. I've also kicked her out of a bathroom stall with two other girls twice now. She told me today that she wants to go to cosmetology school as a Junior and Senior, and this seems like a great idea for her. However, she needs to get her grades up in order to get in. I'm really worried about her. I'm worried about drug use and mental health. 

The second student that I'm worried about (I'll call him Rob) is on the Autism spectrum, and he is not getting much work finished. His class submitted Claim-Evidence-Warrant-Evidence-Warrant paragraphs yesterday, but he has not started his. I attempted to help him yesterday (when we had a substitute for his paraprofessional) and today, but he isn't getting anything done. I can't tell if he is being oppositional/defiant or if he is just being stubborn. I started some sentences for him, but his peers were watching The Great Gatsby with Leonardo Dicaprio, and that was terribly distracting. I asked him to go to the classroom where his Intervention Specialist is, but this got him more upset. He wanted to "make a deal" with me, but he had no terms to give. He asked me to make him a deal, but I've given him all that I could think to give. I'm not sure what else to do for this young man to get him writing. 

Today I feel like a failure of a teacher.

Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia

 My Honors Hidden Voices and Honors YA Lit students have finished reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia, and we started discussing the ending of Dead Dead Girls today. We also read recent news articles about Black girls and women going missing and being killed. Additionally, we casually researched Samuel Little, who killed about 90 women "who would not be missed" over the course of about 30 years. 

My students had mixed reviews of the book. Mostly they were dissatisfied with the ending and the pacing. Some felt the book could have been longer, while others thought there were about 20 chapters too many. Many of them suspected the killer very early on. Additionally, my students are very interested in true crime, so the research on Samuel Little was well-received.

For next year, I think I will replace Dead Dead Girls in my Honors Hidden Voices course. I had students vote for texts at the beginning of the year, and Dead Dead Girls was a popular novel. However, the aim of this book was to present a contrast with The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and to present a minority voice from the Harlem Rennaisance.

I considered using Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston or Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. However, these texts are a little later and are not centered in the Harlem Rennaisance. Hurston wrote during the Harlem Renaissance, so there is a space to add her based on that timeline. Therefore, I might need to contrast The Great Gatsby with the poetry of Langston Hughes as well as Their Eyes Were Watching God. Students also completed a WebHunt on Google Slides that I would also keep next year. 

From here, I think our current progression looks like this: Behold the Dreamers, The Great Gatsby, Dead Dead Girls, Of Mice and Men, Fences. 

Next year, I would like the progression to look like this for Honors Hidden Voices: Behold the Dreamers, The Great Gatsby, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Of Mice and Men, Fences. I would like to work A Raisin in the Sun in somewhere near Hurston's novel, and I would like to also read the poetry of Langston Hughes (especially "A Dream Deferred") 

I would greatly appreciate comments and suggestions about what progression might be best.