By: ode to the womb poet

ode to the womb poet — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 03:07:54 +0000

well, kids these days know a lot more, so i would just tell them straight up- this is the exercise, keep it clean in school, but feel free to write and share whatever you want outside of the class…(sounds like some real ‘1984″ type-stuff, i know, but i guess this is what i’m not a teacher =)

By: Braless Teenager

Braless Teenager — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 00:29:40 +0000

Patricia,
One blog:
saintelizabethstreet.blogspot.com
One entry:
The Latest NYC DOE adventure
a poet with cerbral palsy shares her story as an invited to a high school classroom.
i feel and fear for students.

By: Liz Babcock

Liz Babcock — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:40:07 +0000

oh God, what is school for? by all means, go back to pointless boredom.

By: J. Bryan Shoup

J. Bryan Shoup — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 17:42:02 +0000

What’s a “middle-American mug,” beyond vestiges of class warfare in a metaphor?
Anyway, all kidding aside, I think you made a small error here. I don’t think it was intentional, but since you ask for the take of this blog’s readers…
I’m a teacher myself (first job out of college, I teach Greek and Roman history — with the Iliad and the Aeneid for each — as well as Logic and Latin) and I can understand where Mr. Regular was coming from.
It may have been “your classroom” for that duration of time, but ultimately he has to deal with the student the rest of the day. If the student was able to overindulge himself and go a bit overboard, that energy and insouciance (or perhaps malice toward his regular teacher) carries on to the chunk of the day that is Mr. Regular’s.
Think of it in terms of discipline. At my school, students are not supposed to lean back in their chairs (it weakens the chair legs and we’ve had a few kids hurt themselves by disobeying, what with gravity and all). It’s a hard habit for kids to break, and if half of us enforce it, and the other half doesn’t, then the enforcing half has to deal with students full of bad habits.
Or if the teacher before my period gives them heavy loads of sugar, they’ll end up crashing or being hyper in my period. I mean, I give sugar as well, just at the beginning of class on an active day so the energy is processed.
Hopefully you see my point. The hour I have with each class is my time, but it profoundly impacts everyone else. That’s the nature of teaching at middle school or high school. I let coaches and other teachers from time to time stick their head into my class and make announcements. I don’t make a list of what they can or can’t do. But it’s common knowledge that the football coach can’t do their pump up cheers in the brief five minutes alloted to him, because that will impact their conduct once he leaves.
A penis poem sounds clever, but at a public school you’re never quite sure who you’re going to offend, and that teacher may have feared being part of the target if a parent or student complained, because he allowed it to occur.
As for poets seeking attention, not all of us do it in flashy ways, or else there wouldn’t be pennames.

Comments on: Did I get stiffed?

By: ode to the womb poet

By: Braless Teenager

By: Liz Babcock

By: J. Bryan Shoup