Up in the Delta

balance.

2011-10-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.

I have read this prayer countless times, but so easily find myself loosing sight of the themes that it highlights. Today I was sitting in Helena's version of a "coffee shop," a bed and breakfast that the owners graciously opened and allowed some TFA folks to spend their Sunday afternoon working. Because I for some reason woke up and worked from 1 AM to 5 AM Sunday morning, I had most of my work done, so I took some much need time to write, pray, and reflect. It never ceases to amaze me how we marginalize and set aside the most important aspects of our lives and replace them with stresses about menial tasks and unimportant frustrations. I haven't written on this blog in awhile for a multitude of reasons, but one of them is that I've found myself constantly working, and constantly pushing myself harder to achieve results. Today I find myself realizing that it is impossible to pour out without investing time to fill myself. For those to whom I haven't spoken recently who are yearning for answers to more detail oriented questions such as, "How is your new job? What has the change from the public school to the charter school been like?" I unfortunately do not have fully formulated answers to those questions. The short of it is that I enjoy what I am doing. Its hard work, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Today I rest in the fact that my sole efforts have never and will never bring about the change that I desire to see in my students and in the life of this county. I rest in the fact that I am doing substantially important work that will never be complete. I rest in the fact that I am a worker, not a master builder. I'll let the rest of the prayer take it from here....

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything,
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future that is not our own. Amen.

blogalicious.

2011-06-16T07:27:00.000-07:00

maybe i haven’t updated in so long because the semester was crazy busy, and it just escaped my mind, or maybe i haven’t updated in awhile because i have stopped looking at what i do as this crazy sequence of events that are extremely temporary and started looking at it more as just my life. either way, that was a crazy long, run-on sentence. i found it doubtful that anybody wanted to hear about my day to day wake up, eat breakfast, go to school routine, but i suppose there are still those out there who are interested in what i’m up to. three parts: part 1 - the semester, part 2 - next year, part 3 - thoughts.

part 1 - so the switch from teaching the fluff class to teaching algebra was certainly the best thing that happened to me this year. i realized just how much i love teaching algebra 1, and how vital it is for kids' long term success in math. i taught all my favorite objectives from last year, and i tried like crazy to get those kiddos ready for the end-of-course test. test scores should be coming in within the next week or two, and i will update once we get those. i think they will be pretty solid, as most of the kids were double blocked (took two math classes) for algebra this year. the practice test scores were a lot higher than last year’s scores, so i hope to see some pretty substantial growth. despite the fact that this year was a bit crazy overall, (with our district laying off a fourth of the staff, our ninth grade academy principal being out for surgery over half the year, and half of the school getting reshuffled at christmas time) i managed to hold it down to the best of my abilities in room 7, and teach those kiddos a bit of math. other highlights of the year include but are not limited to: cooking breakfast for the kiddos the day of the state test, teaching and playing ultimate frisbee with several kids on several different occasions, ten or so study sessions at wendy’s before the end-of-course test, doing insanity with a couple of the kiddos, and a water ballon fight with several kids on the last day of school. good times.

part 2 - next year i will be staying in helena, ar teaching algebra 1 at KIPP delta college preparatory school. (http://www.kippdelta.org/) i hesitate to say too much about next year because i am extremely excited about it, and i have a tendency to get a little amped up about things (this may come as a shock to many). things i do know: i will be pushed extremely hard to get results, i will have an administration behind me that supports what i do and knows how to develop good teachers, and i will work. a lot. this summer i’ve been working through my curriculum (saxon algebra 1) for next year, and that stuff is on an entirely different level of rigor than what i’ve been teaching for the past two years. this is good. this will push me to push the kids. it will be quite difficult, but i am ready.

part 3 - what has this semester taught me? or more importantly, what has this past two years taught me? i am officially done with “teach for america,” and now i’m just a regular ole teacher in a charter school. i can barely even begin to answer the question of what i’ve learned this past two years, and i think i will be answering that question for the next ten years, or maybe for the rest of my life. i know i am a different person than the one that walked in the doors of central high school on day one, not knowing that i was about to have my rear end (i’ll leave it G rated for Mee-Maw) handed to me. “their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive what he is due.” - 1 corinthians 3:13 - 14. my kids have taught me through the fire. they have run me through the gauntlet over and over. they have taught me that all the idealistic, “hopey changey stuff” (cite sarah palin) is all great in theory, but you better come ready to bring it. i’ve learned that the hopey, changey stuff is meaningless without solid planning, solid expectations, solid execution, and on and on it goes. several people have asked me as of late, “so what happened to seminary? i thought you were going into the ministry?” first, this is most certainly ministry work, and i have started to see more and more that the achievement gap is one of, if not the, greatest injustices of our generation. i cannot walk away from that after two years in search of something more substantial. does that rule seminary out? of course not. we all know i change my mind every day, but for now, i am content where i am. i am excited about a new chapter. i am hopeful, and i am ready to plunge back into the depths of teaching algebra 1 to some crazy crazy kiddos in helena, ar. summer school starts in a couple of weeks...... peace.

life is good.

2011-01-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

per usual, i feel the need to begin this blog post with the obligatory, "sorry i haven't updated this bad boy in awhile." much has occurred in the life of this teacher since the last time i updated, so lets get to it. as always, i will break the update up into parts. part 1 - my new teaching slate, part 2 - war damn eagle, part 3 - other aspects of life

part 1 - so as many of you know, i am (very thankfully) back to teaching math this semester. i have five classes of "math lab," which is basically algebra remediation and one class of algebra 1. in my math lab classes, i have all the ninth graders who are not in pre-ap classes, and i am covering many of the objectives that they have already seen in their regular algebra 1 class. its great because i know that all of the kids i am working with need the extra dosage of math. at the same time, it is quite annoying when all the children say "we already know this stuff." my response: while i love you dear children, let me assure you that you do not "already know this stuff." i would be more than happy to show you your test scores if you do not believe me. that wasn't nice, but very true. my one algebra 1 class... hot mess. i have 25 students in that class, all of which are repeater students, each and every one of them. i had about 1/4 of them last year, and the rest of them are very infamous names around central high school. if you went through all of the office referrals at central in a given month, i would bet that my 3rd period class would make up around 25% of the stack. haha. thus far, they have remained relatively calm, and they have done most of the work that i have asked them to do. i think i started off on a good foot with most of them, and i hope that it stays that way. thursday, i received yet another addition to an already stellar lineup. frank ross had just returned from the alternative school, and he walked in ten minutes into my lesson. the rest of the class responds, "oh this is just too much mr. rah, this class be too bad for you to teach." don't worry children, i have had the same thought, but i haven't given up hope yet. i have a ton of work to do with that class if they are going to learn any algebra. pray for me. pray for them :)

part 2 - oh yeah, and auburn won the national championship. ooohhh sweet goodness when that field goal went through those uprights i ran around chris richey's house like a raving lunatic, and then i cried just a little bit. my pastor (the aforementioned chris richey) was gracious enough to set up a projector in his house and let me invite a whole host of people over to watch the game (which for most of the guests was secondary in the entertainment category to my screaming and pacing back and forth from the living room to the kitchen.) i haven't really come off the high of the win yet, and i hope that i don't for a little while. from the undefeated yet thwarted by probation team of 1993, to the crap fest team of 1998, to the underachieving team of 2003, to the undefeated yet screwed by the bcs team of 2004, to the 5-7 mess that took the field my last year at auburn, to national champions. what a sweet feeling it was. for true auburn tigers who have battled it out for four or five years: kodi burns, josh bynes, zach ethridge, aairon saivage, lee ziemba, and even fumble ridden fannin. those boys deserved it. war damn eagle.

part 3 - well in other news.... i have begun my training for a full maraton. i am 92% sure that i am going to die by the time i hit mile 18, but i've already shelled out that money for the full, so there is no stopping me now. i even got myself some official, fancy running shoes. we shall see how this goes. congrats to glenn and lt for a wonderful marriage ceremony and a reception complete with lots of cupid shuffling and teaching folks how to dougie. i enjoyed every second of it. love you guys. the children have been relatively calm this semester aside from them screaming at me to stamp their do-now cards, shouting out incorrect answers at the top of their lungs when they haven't been called on, and informing me that i need to go ahead and get married because i am getting old. one of my favorite kids from last year files papers for me after school, and she is constantly warning me that if i keep teaching at central, i will most certainly never want to have kids. haha. speaking of staying at central, it is certainly an option next year. i am still convinced i will be in helena next year, just uncertain if and where i will be teaching. we shall see. hope everyone is doing well. peace.

forgot i had a blog.

2010-11-15T15:26:00.000-08:00

well I sure forgot about updating this bad boy. ohhhh it has been quite a past couple of months. i will break this up into a couple of pieces as i normally do… part 1 – teaching and the children, part 2 – other parts of life, part 3 – next year? part 4 - how things are going in general/ funny things the children do. I will try to keep each section short.

part 1 – ok, so what I really want to do most days is go back in time to my stupid idealistic self and kick myself in the face when I was thinking things like “oh yeah, it’ll be great to teach a class with no standards, learning goals, resources, scope, sequence, etc.” hahaha…. I have done my best to make this class work this semester, and I think my kids have gotten some good things out of it, but overall it has been too disjointed and at times a hot mess. the good news…. I spoke with my principal the other day, and I am back to teaching math again next semester. good news for me, hopefully good news for the children’s test scores…. for some reason the kids keep deciding to add the phrase "stanky tail" to anything they say lately. as in, "shoot, i aint doin this.... stanky tail" i don't understand what the stanky tail is supposed to accomplish but it makes me chuckle.

part 2 – i preached a good ole barn burner of a sermon a couple of sundays ago at delta fellowship church. since then my kids have been continually asking me, “mr. rah, you a preacher? i heard you be preaching. why you didn’t tell us you be preachin?” haha, I took it as a high complement. well, except for the kids that said things like "man, i gotta listen to you talk enough durin class, you think imma try to listen to you on a sunday?" ha! i don't know that i would want to listen to me either after a week of my classroom rants. i have been doing a lot with delta fellowship lately, and i love the people there. we have wednesday night meetings in which we drink adult beverages and talk theology. "theology on tap" we call it, just up my ally. i love it. i feel inclined to comment on cam newton, but i am going to refrain at this point. all i know is we are 11-0 and headed to the sec championship. war eagle and its great to be an auburn tiger. oh yeah, and there is nothing better than hearing my kids say, "dang, i am tired of hearing about auburn, when they gon loose?" hahahaha, glorious.

part 3 - so we are giving standardized tests to the children all this week. we, of course, just found out about this last week. i was, of course, not happy about this. however, today during part of the test, as i was walking around watching the kids fill in bubbles i took a moment to think about and write out my possibilities for next year. currently, (for those of you who know me, you will know that this is life plan number 431) i am considering either enrolling in seminary in memphis next year and living in helena or staying in helena to teach another year. in my writings the pros of seminary lasted about three pages, so that sort of helped push me a little further in that direction. i am definitely leaning that way at this point, but i am sure prone to change my mind.

part 4 - so as you can likely surmise from the post above, my plan is to stay in helena next year. i really love this messed up place, and i see so much potential for this community. the downtown area that was once thriving back when there was industry and the town had over 40,000 residents is currently pretty much deserted, but there are several groups working to build it back up. i have several kids who i really want to see graduate, and i am going to find it difficult to leave this place until that has happened. this job is difficult, and if i am doing it right, it always will be. regardless, i am glad to be where i am, and i hope to remain here for awhile. i will leave you all with a couple of children stories that are pretty much straight ripped from my roommates blog. first is the evolution of phrase "bro" the children started off calling me "bro". it has evolved as follows.....
Bro > Brah > Breh > Bruh > Bruh bruh. Example.... mr rah says....."how are you LJ?" response.... "sup bruh bruh" mr rah says.... LJ, my name is not "bruh bruh" response.... "my bad bruh bruh" ughhh.... this one i am straight going to rip from my roommates blog because he tells it well. this is called the "Kay" and our children pull it off well.....

"Here's what you do: A teacher is giving you a lecture. Wait for them to almost finish their sentence. Then say, loudly enough to jolt them off balance, "Kayyy!"

"Kaayy" as in "OK," as in, "Yeah, whatever you say," as in, "No."

Example:
Mr. J-L: "Crystal, you need to respect my classroom's rul–
Crystal: "Kayyyy!"
Mr. J-L: "I'm sorry, that's not acceptable; you can't be using that w–"
Crystal: "Kaaayyy!"

HA!! gotta love these danged kids. have a nice day. peace.

ohhh year 2....

2010-09-11T06:05:00.000-07:00

so i realized this morning that i have yet to update since year two began. understatement of the year..... year 2 > year 1. hahaha. i like to break these updates up into parts so here we go.... part one - the ninth grade academy and the ninth graders part two - what the mess am i teaching? part three - other parts of life.

part 1 - sooooo.... this ninth grade academy, or the "cougar academy for excellence" as it has been deemed has had a couple of kinks in the rollout phase. kink #1 - these kids be crazy. i was told last year by all of my students that "them kids be bad mr. rah, they gon get you" well they were certainly on point in the first half of that statement. ninth graders in general are insane, and at central that is just kicked up a notch. by putting all the ninth graders in the same hall we've successfully avoided the problem of the ninth graders being negatively affected by the repeater tenth graders. however we've discovered that it has created a problem very similar to what you would encounter if you took all the wild animals out of the jungle and stuck them into a small enclosed area after pumping red bull into their system. BUT the good news is.... mr. rah almost kind of knows what he is doing this year. that means they are NOT destroying my life in the same way they did last year. despite the craziness, i absolutely love these kids already. i can tell they really want to learn despite how nuts they are. i have already been called "boring" several times, which is a high praise because i found out last year that just means that the kids don't throw things and get in fights in my room (or at least that's how i make myself feel better about being boring) a few quotes already "dude, you always be talkin bout that ole stanky auburn place."' "why you so country? you from alabama or something?" "dude if you don't let me go to the bathroom im finna go upside somebody's head or pee on yo ole floor"'

Part 2 - what the mess am i teaching? GREAT question..... answer... yikes, i am not sure. the keystone course was a great idea in theory, and i am still really excited about the possibilities. however, there is wayyyy too much fluff in the objectives that i am supposed to teach. i am trying to get rid of the fluff and teach things that are skill based and substantially important for kids lives. i still plan on hitting some algebra standards really hard when it gets closer to test time, and i am excited about that. i have also talked to a couple of veteran teachers down the road at KIPP who are hopefully going to help me get this course on point. i have taught some pretty good things thus far this year, but in this course it's much harder than in math to know whether or not the kids are learning. regardless, i think some good things are on the way with this course. updates will come soon.

part 3 - well, since it is the beginning of the year... there is not a lot going on in life other than teaching. cam newton is a beast (no comments necessary podge). the kids listen to me more than they did last year. i have only written up a couple as opposed to the twenty i had written up at this point last year. i am leading this course at professional development for TFA, which i am pretty excited about. the new TFAs at my school seem to be adjusting well. a kid i had last year has already transferred out of one first year TFA's class. when i asked him why, he informed me "he be a actin just like you. i can't STAND that man." that is all. peace.

the end of summer draws nigh.

2010-07-27T12:43:00.000-07:00

summer is approaching its end. this fact saddens me and fills me with anxious anticipation, but also excitement for the upcoming year. to be quite honest the summer could not have gone much better, and i believe that the things i have learned and experienced this summer will help in making my second year of teaching much better than the first. so what are these “things” i speak of you might ask? well allow me to share a few...

1. i will be teaching keystone (refer to previous blog posts for an explanation of what that means) next year, but i still am weirdly passionate about algebra. i think this passion mainly grows from the fact that it is a high stakes test, and i want to see my kids do well on it. as luck would have it, i am going to be able to teach lots of algebra standards in my keystone course (maybe even half the year). because keystone is all about goal setting, we will be setting goals pertaining to performance on the algebra end of course test. this excites me
2. i really enjoy thinking through, writing, and delivering an organization of thoughts known as a sermon. i was able to deliver one of these to the members of savannah FUMC last sunday, and i think it went pretty well. i had about a million and one things i wanted to say, but managed to fit it all into a twenty minute block using the strategy of staring at my watch the entire time. i had perfected this art in the classroom this past year, and it sure came in handy. it was a blessing to get to speak to my home church, and i am very thankful for the opportunity. since the sermon, i have been told by more than a couple of people that i need to make this art of sermonizing a part of my career path; we shall see :)
3. the act of reading, thinking, and writing may be the most underrated practice in the world. i have spent so much of my summer at uptown restaurant drinking coffee, journaling, reading, etc and man has it been great for my life. we are taught from an early age in our society that success is measured by your ability to keep going and keep producing. i believe this is a fatal flaw in our culture which leads to lots of empty lives of chasing after nothing. periodically putting a hold on the constant chase for more allows us to refuel. we weren’t created to live without rest. now, this is all easy for me to say when i have the summer off. we’ll see if i can put what i have learned into practice this upcoming year.

there’s a few things. i know there are many more, but i will leave you all with that for now. i sincerely miss the presence of the “funny stories about my students” portion of my blog updates. i suppose that means i sincerely miss my students, at least in a way. well, they are coming soon, and we’ll see just how much i miss them after a week of “mr. rah, don’t nobody know this stuff. why you always be tryin to make us do all this work mr. rah?” haha.... ohhhh the children. as a side note. if anyone is interested in reading my sermon, i’ve got the text in a document i can send to you. hope everyone is doing well. peace.

summer?

2010-07-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

"why is it, that if i have all this free time in the summer, i haven't updated my blog more often?" the blogger wondered to himself. okay, that is the last time i will refer to myself in a weird, third-person, existentialist (i don't even know if that word really makes sense there but i really wanted to use it) fashion. so yeah, i don't know why i haven't updated in awhile, but i haven't so here goes. i'll break it up into parts so that you can decide which part you'd enjoy to undertaking the difficult task of reading my babble. part 1 shall be - "test scores" part 2 shall be - "savannah fumc" part 3 shall be - "other"

part 1 - so as anyone who has glanced at my Facebook page will be completely aware, the test scores came back in, and they were good. good is the understatement of the year when it comes to just how excited i was about these test scores (ask anyone who went on mission trip, they will attest.) my overage average for my kids was 204 (which is above proficient). 32 out of the 59 of my kids who took the test scored proficient. thats about 54%. to give a few comparable measures.... last year at central 27% of the school was proficient (this year 38% of the school overall was proficient.) the 54% that my students scored is SOOO much higher than anything i expected, and i am blown away by my kids performance. i am attempting (apparently unsuccessfully according to a very critical fellow TFA teacher) to be humble in receiving this news and deflecting it all back to the God who gave me the strength to make it to this point, but that is proving to be a very difficult venture. yet i try. before departing from the subject of test scores i must tell the story of how i came to receive the good news of the scores. i was on a mission trip with my youth group (a subject which will be breached in part 2) and i had just come back from a day at the work site. i had three missed calls from MJL (my roommate) and this let me know that the test scores were in. i didn't know what my next move should be. i was in charge of driving the van of childrens back to the place we were staying (a forty-five minute endeavor). those of you who know anything about me and patience know that it is not one of my strong suites. i decided to call dad's office and get amy (who works for him) to look up the scores online. the only decoding of the scores she could really do was to give me individual kids' scores as a reeled them off to her one by one. here about how the conversation went.

Levi: "ok... Braylan Lewis."
Amy: Pass.... score of 223.
Levi: "WHAT!???!!? OH MY SICK... (SWERVES VAN AND RUNS OFF ROAD....) ATTA BOY... YES SIR!!!

part 2 - so for those of you who do not currently know, my summer job is leading the youth of savannah first united methodist church. thus far it has been a very different, yet fruitful and enjoyable experience. the youth group is pretty small (about 5 to 7 on average) but i've gotten to know the kids pretty well. we've been reading through rob bell's "velvet elvis" and i think the discussion has gone pretty well. this marks i think the 4th time i've read velvet elvis and 2nd time i've lead a small group in discussion based around his book. needless to say, i enjoy it, and each time i read it new realities and questions are opened up that i missed the first few times around. as previous stated we went on a mission trip last week which was a real blessing. we worked in the yard of an elderly couple named gary and anna, and they were both very enthused to have us there. i attempted to be richard rogers (but of course failed) and climbed off into the jungle that was gary and anna's back yard chopping down everything in my path. after three and half days of trying to be like my father, i decided that was a job best suited for him. the site coordinators nicknamed me "jungle joe" and "lumberjack levi" (probably when i wasn't around they referred to me more along the lines of "idiot with a chainsaw.") nonetheless, the trip was pretty awesome, and the kids did a great job. many thanks to page ledbetter, who dropped everything she was doing and decided to selflessly come along and chaperone the trip. she's a pretty awesome person if you don't know her. we've got one more trip coming up this summer, and then our usual meetings on tuesdays and sundays (as well as hopefully some other cool stuff.) working with the youth this summer has opened my eyes to a lot, and i think further maybe pushed me in the direction of pursuing full time ministry after i finish this teaching stint. we shall see. as an aside, if anyone plans to be in savannah, tn july 18th, levi rogers will be preaching a barn burner of a sermon on sunday morning at savannah first united methodist church entitled....... hmm i should probably figure that out soon.....

part 3 - i actually think that just about covers it. let's see if i have any other parting things to leave all of you interested readers with.... well, if you would like to go see the worst story line in the history of cinematic film, go see the movie "the killers" with ashton kutcher. also, if you are looking for an amazing read, go buy anything NT Wright has ever written. he's a beast. if you want to absolutely destroy yourself and not have the energy to pick yourself off the floor, go do the "insanity workout." in summary, summer is great. its not what i was expecting in a lot of ways, but its been an awesome, welcome break. after getting the test scores back, i want to teach algebra again next year. we are currently in the process of figuring out if that will actually happen. i suppose that will do for now. peace.

more on the end....

2010-06-10T06:40:00.000-07:00

so last time i gave you my deepest, fullest reflections of how the year ended up, everything i've learned, and why i am the most enlightened person you have ever met (ha...) i thought people might appreciate a bit more light-hearted and informational post concerning what the end of the year was like... we'll break this up into a couple of parts.... 1. the test 2. after the test 3. what about next year?

1. the test - so the test they had to take was high-stakes, meaning if they don't pass it, they do not graduate. the results of the test are not back yet, but i will update as soon as i hear anything. regardless of how my kids do, i was extremely proud of the effort they put into the test. in years past, lots of the kids have left the open response sections blank and i know MOST of my kids at least attempted that section. some fellow TFA teachers and i cooked the kids breakfast on the days of the test and despite their accusations of "nobody wanting my ole stanky breakfast," the kids came and seemed to enjoy it. it is so difficult for them to express appreciation sometimes. one of them stood over my shoulder for five minutes while mustering up the courage to say "that was good." and then scrambling off. that breakfast and their ensuing effort on the test was most certainly the pinnacle of my year with the kids....

2. after the test - well if the test was the pinnacle that only leads one direction to go from there, down. haha. i didn't realize how much of my course was 100 percent built around that test, but it most certainly was. after it was over, it was difficult to get myself and/or the kids motivated to do ANYTHING. we did a project for a week or so which involved the kids managing a record label (thank you TFA.net). that worked ok, although part of the project was to answer questions like "what did you learn from this project?" and "what was the hardest part of this project?" as answers to those questions i got a lot of "man, i didn't learn nothing" as well as "the hardest part was listening to you talk without telling you to shut up." hahaha, those were fun to read. so yeah.... after the project, well..... some things got accomplished, but not enough, that is for sure. mom and erin came to my class one day to which the children responded, "that yo momma? ahhh, tell us baby stories! i hear yo son used to be fat? how he get so fat?" hahaha. i think they enjoyed it.....

3. next year - so we are starting what is called a 9th grade academy next year. i am so extremely excited about this that i don't even know what to do. the basic purpose of the academy is to give the 9th graders a year of transition into high school. our kids have a hard time transitioning sometimes, and i think this will most certainly benefit them. the 9th grade academy will basically run as a school in and of its self, and hopefully next year we will even apply for a charter. there will be no repeaters in the 9th grade academy, which may be one of the academy's strongest assets. i cannot fully describe the ill-effects a repeater can have on your classroom culture if you are not careful. with the addition of the academy, i will no longer be teaching algebra next year. i will be teaching a course called Keystone, which is difficult to describe. i will give a very short description, and if you are in any way interested, i will post the full description at the bottom for you to read. the short description is this - its basically a career focused course which gives the students a focus for high school. it equips them with essentials skills that many of our students do not currently possess (examples - organization, study skills, time management, etc.). i get to find out a lot more about my kids lives by teaching this class, and that excites me. it will be a whole new set of challenges, but exciting challenges nonetheless. i am currently in savannah, an update on that will come at a later point. things are going well... hope all is well for everybody. i am pasting the full keystone description if you are interested.

"Keystone is a career-focused course that sets the 9th grade students of Central High School on a goal driven path, which will be a launching point for future success in high school and college. Keystone is designed to invest every student in the idea that success in school is attainable. Throughout the year, Keystone will equip students with the knowledge and skills to set and attain ambitious goals for their futures. Students should leave with a clear purpose for the next three years and an ability
to articulate how their courses of study relate to their goals for the future. Throughout the Keystone course, each student will define success for him or herself after discovering his or her specific learning style and exploring the careers that are compatible with his or her interests and abilities. Interest inventories and personal profiles will inform students as they
go through this process. Organization and time management habits, decision making analysis, interdisciplinary projects and books, high-stakes test taking strategies and purpose studies, a study of how our shared past in the Delta informs our future, as well as an extensive focus on journal entries will all be a part of the curriculum of the Keystone course."

finished...

2010-06-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

So I have gotten really bad at this, I know. This is something I hope to improve upon next year, but I suppose I cannot change the past now. I have been doing a lot of personal writing and journaling of my own, which is why the blog hasn't been updated as much. I was writing this morning, and I decided I would post some of it here. This is a bit wordy, warm, and fuzzy, so I will post a more informational based post a bit later perhaps. However, I thought this was worth sharing...

"Exactly one year ago today, I arrived in Cleveland, MS and embarked upon this journey that is teaching. As I walked into the dorms of Delta State University, I had no idea that I was about to experience the most difficult, powerful, intense, and challenging year of my life. The things that I have learned this year cannot be summarized in a cute little journal entry because most of them have yet to be fully realized. I have been shaped and changed by some rowdy, tough, yet utterly amazing kids. I never knew that I would come to love the jokers as much as I have, but it happened. From the first day with these kids they have pushed me. They have forced me to become a better teacher and a better person each and every day. They have taught me more than any book, mentor, movie, or professor could ever teach. They have showed me that I do not walk into the doors of Room 007 Downhill at Central High School without a bell to bell plan. They have taught me that I must be on top of my game every minute of every second or else.... They have shown me that its not always the most effectively classroom management strategies that get the kids in line, its showing them that you care about them and about their education. They have truly shown me that trust is not something that is easily given, it must be earned. They have taught me that without powerful substance and work ethic, idealism will get you slapped across the face (literally and figuratively.) They have shaped who I am and who I want to be. They have shed new light on the blindness towards pain, suffering, and injustice that so many of those raised in my surroundings (myself included) possess. They have shown me that the best of intentions can be ripped to shreds without a solid sense of accountability and purpose. Maybe my kids have learned something from me. Maybe. But I would be willing to bet that anything I may have taught them pales in comparison to the vast array of things they have shown me. I had no idea I would miss my kids the way I already do. (well.... most of them anyway) But when one of them stood up after 3rd period and gave a speech to the class saying “Even though that you made me really mad a lot of times, and got on my nerves most days, you was a good teacher. We gon’ miss your class and we wish you was teaching us Geometry,” it got me. However, it was a great way to bring an end to the most challenging year of my life. Now this year is behind, and I already look forward (a little bit) to the next one ahead. Next year will bring on its own set of challenges including the fact that I am teaching a completely different subject (which I am quite excited about.) As I continue to fine tune my vision for next year over the summer, I pray that next year can teach me half as much as this year did (perhaps in a less stressful way.)

more to come later....

home...

2010-04-04T13:34:00.000-07:00

I know its been awhile since I've updated so here goes. We'll do this one in four parts (I've been listening to This American Life a lot lately.) Part 1 - School and the Children, Part 2 - Time at Home, Part 3 - Other uninteresting things about my life, and Part 4 - Funny things the children say. If you read this blog only for the funny stories, feel free to skip to Part 4 but I at least must make you feel guilty by skipping by all my heartwarming stories of student achievement blah blah blah... oh here goes...

Part 1 - As I've stated each and every time I have updated this semester, school is going much better. The children and I are getting along well for the most part, although some days I just want to scream at them to STOOPPPPPPP TALKKKKIIIINNNGGGG. I try not to yell these days though. So one of the biggest problems that Teach for America teachers often deal with is "investment," getting kids to care about your class. This is (in ways) easier for me because they have a high stakes test they have to pass at the end of the year. However, I did struggle to have kids take my class seriously first semester, but that is something that has substantially improved. I've been having study sessions at Wendy's this semester and I am averaging about 10 to 12 kids at these sessions. Now this usually requires me hunting the kids down in the hall, texting them, bribing them with Frosties, etc. etc. but its still nice to have so many kids show up. The problem now is that it is turning into as much of a social scene as a study session, but I'll get em in line. The kids took a practice test on Wednesday, and their results were not awesome, but they were at least hopeful. I had enough kids score on the border line to make me hopeful that with review, they will be ready for the real test. Three more weeks and then that danged test is over, and I will be able to breathe again.

Part 2 - I came home over spring break and had a wonderfully relaxing time getting to see family. Pickwick is already calling my name for the summer. The time I spent there made me long for school to go ahead and wrap up real quick. I also got to do a little bit of work with the youth over spring break, which again made me ready for the summer. I was reminded that I get to take my kids to Lake J, which is insanely exciting for me. If you don't know what Lake J is, it is a beautiful beautiful camp in North Carolina that our youth group went to every year in high school. Anyway, I'm extremely pumped about working with the youth and just being home in general this summer. I am also currently at home for Easter/Mom's birthday. My wonderful sister planned a surprise party for mom's 50th birthday. (Awesome job Erin, it was perfect) Mom was quite surprised and teary. The crowd got the intense pleasure of hearing me step my little intrusive self up to the mike and intrude on the band (reid and dan isbell) and proceed to sing every song with them the rest of the night. (Hope they didn't mind). It was a good time though.

Part 3 - Ahh now for other uninteresting things about my life. The half marathon is only three weeks away and I'm ready to dominate that bad boy. Very glad that I'm not doing the full, because there is no way I could run 26 miles, dear gracious. I've also been doing the "Spartacus Workout" lately and most people don't know this, but nowadays if I take my shirt off I look a lot like a combination between Brad Pitt from Troy and Will Smith from I am Legend (only maybe a little hairier.) Ohhh I finally replaced my laptop over Spring Break, and I, of course, am obsessed. I do not let that thing out of my sight. Oh, I also signed up for Twitter. Feel free to rain the judgement down upon me (or follow me if you'd like, lrogers_wde). Ok I won't bore you with any more uninteresting things about my life and we can get on to what we've all been waiting for.... the funny things the children say...

Part 4 - I'm not exactly chocked full of them this time, but here are a few zingers... (all of these are available for viewing on my Twitter account, I'm plugging that hardcore. haha.)

"Mr. Rah, you so low down. You know God don't like low down people Mr. Rah. God don't like you Mr. Rah." - Frank Ross

"Mr. Rah, why you always tryin to keep a brother down? I can't take no more of this math with all the Xs and stuff Mr. Rah." -Frank Ross

Ok this one I asked for... but it was nonetheless hilarious.... I asked the following questions a a worksheet before spring break, and here are the responses I got...

“What are you going to do over spring break?” “None of your business, I aint telling you no kind of Sugar Honey Ice Tea.” Notice each letter of the last part is capitalized, they were also underlined. If you don’t understand, let me know and I’ll explain.

“On a scale of one to ten, please rate how much you will me me over the break.” I got... “-200”, “0”, “not as much as you think,” “I don’t miss boys, only girls,” “you know I don’t like you,” and “mr. rah, you play too much”

Ok... I think thats all. I’ll go now. Peace.

flying by.....

2010-03-07T19:19:00.000-08:00

So again I haven’t updated in awhile. Second semester has been insane so far and flown by in ways that I never thought would be possible. There are not words that could possibly describe how much different this first semester has gone as compared to the first. I started off with about 100 students, and I am now down to around 65. It’s really sad because many of them have ended up in the alternative school, expelled, or dropped out. However, it sure has made my life a lot easier. My class sizes are all down to around 15 or so, and are therefore much more manageable. Last week was actually the first week since the beginning of the semester that we were in school for five days. We’ve had teacher in-service, holidays, or snow days every single week since January, and now we’re a week into the three week sprint until spring break. Only two weeks until spring break, and only six weeks until our End of Course test. I stopped being an overachiever/ living in a fantasy world meaning I’ve decided to run the half marathon and not the full. I feel like that was a good decision, I just didn’t have the 4 hours to train every weekend…. Maybe next year.

So people from a previous life will be extremely disappointed in this next section of the blog…. I’ve had a nice “raggedy” (as the children say) phone for the past two years and unfortunately the other day it decided to die on me. Since I have faithfully stuck by ole raggedy for so long I was eligible for an upgrade and yes… it happened… I got an iPhone. Hahaha…. I got it on Tuesday and did almost nothing but play with it for four hours on Tuesday night. So yes… feel free to judge me. I deserve it. As a side note, I may no longer have your number so feel free to send it to me. I won’t be annoying at this point and set up one of those ridiculous Facebook groups to ask for everybody’s number.

Anyway, life is going well. I found out last week that I may be the FUMC youth leader in Savannah this summer. I am pretty excited about that, and sadly I am already thinking about how nice summer will be. Ok… so I need to be sure to include at least one funny tidbit. Earlier in the week I had a student ask me, “Mr. Rogers, why white people be so hairy?” Wasn’t really sure how to respond to that one... Oh also we got these fancy new SmartBoards in our room the other day. They have speakers on the boards so I can now jam out during my planning period. So during one such planning period I had one of my only three white children in my class and we were jamming out to some country music. I had another student walk in and take in the scene…. Two white people at Central High School listening to country music… The student was not impressed…. “White people…” Is all she could muster up. Hahaha… Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. Update me on your lives. Peace.

snow and cold....

2010-02-14T19:10:00.000-08:00

so i was chastised by my father earlier for not updating in awhile, so i decided i should probably do so. we luckily have the day off tomorrow for president's day and its a good thing because i've got about 1000 things i need to do. i promised my kids a new incentive system to get them to be quiet and such so i need to get that together. anyway.... as i updated last time things are still going much better this semester. my kids are still somewhat in control (at least as compared to last year) and we are getting along much better. my biggest concern now is finding out how in the world to get my kids to pass the end of course test. not the simplest task by any stretch of the imagination. the test is in about two months and i'm extremely concerned about how my kids will perform. anyway... update...

we've had several snow days since school started which has been pretty nice (it has also put me even further behind than i already was in preparing my kids for this test). i am about tired of the snow and cold. i want warmth. one of the best things i've been able to continue doing this semester is getting to school early to read, think, pray, and ready myself for the onslaught of children. i have signed up for the country music half marathon at the beginning of the year so i've been trainig for that again. however, i ran almost 17 miles today so i am seriously considering switching over to the full. i just don't know if i can actually run 26 miles. i almost died today after 17 but we'll see.

i've had several kids who i've been able to form pretty decent relationships with... some that hated my guts at the beginning of the year. i gave a test about a week and a half ago and it was the first test that was actually as hard as it needed to be as compared to their end of course test. my kids failed pretty miserably but i had several kids stay after school and do test corrections to bring their grade up. in most of my classes i have kids actually doing work this semester, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to convince them that there is a purpose in them continuing to try when they are getting 20s and 30s on their test. but... despite the very poor results of the last test.. most kids are still trying. ok so we need a humorous interlude here....

so i have a drawing every friday in which the kids put the tickets they have earned for the week in a jar and i pull names and they win chips and candy, etc. last week my wonderful gradnmother had sent me some valentine''s cookies and i included a few of those in the drawing. the kids immediate response of course was "don't nobody want none of your stanky cookies." it took all i had not to go insane but once they actually ate the cookies they became an instant hit. i had two kids come after school and ask if i had any of "them cookies" left. so congrats mee-ma, the cookies were quite popular at central high school. i also discovered that sikenya (the one who threatened to slap the old people) can has an unbelievable singing voice. i discovered this by wandering upon a practice session she was having after school. she of course immediately told me to go away, but when i did not she continued to practice and i could tell she wanted to show off for her favorite teacher :) haha.

in summary..... its too cold. i want warm. i ran a long way, could run longer soon. things are getting better. my kids don't hate me as much. some even like me. sadly, they still don't seem to be learning a whole lot. despite their initial hesitations, the kids love mee maw's cookies. sikenya can sing like a mug. that is all. peace.

a new semester....

2010-01-11T19:18:00.000-08:00

so i realized i haven't updated in awhile.... here's what is new....

the new semester feels SOOOO much better than the first at this point. i tried to get a lot done over the break, (ask my dad because he made fun of me for working my entire break) but it seems to have paid off at so far. so many small things are going better and i am counting all the minor victories. my classes seem to be in control so far this semester which scares me because i know that must mean the children are planning something. i've decided that mental health is a definite must for the new semester, and i'm HOPEFULLY not doing any more of the whole sleeping from 5 in the afternoon to 1 in the morning business. i've decided i'm going to go round 2 with the country music half marathon. another tfa friend of mine and i signed up at the beginning of this year and started our training last week.

it has been freaking cold here and we got out of school friday because it was "too cold" for school. all ye hardin county readers... i am well aware that you were out thursday, friday, and monday and yes i am jealous. anyway... things are going better thus far and i hope and pray that they continue to stay that way. i've been getting to school about an hour before it starts and taking some time to read, write, pray, and think, which has made a paramount of a difference in my sanity to begin the day.

funny stories (i know that's the only reason anybody reads this mess anyway...) so the kids are determined that all of the tfa's are dating one another... i have been set up with about five different teachers (oh and we all cheat on each other with one another and date multiple people at one time.) so i was taking one of my students home after school the other day and one of the other tfa teacher's called me (because we were going to go on a run) anyway... as we made plans to do this my student of course thought she had stumbled upon the gold mine that is my love life and proceeded to freak out the rest of the way home about me and "my old lady." she just assumed it was a certain teacher without asking or having this verified. then after school today she came in my room and pronounced that i was in love with said teacher and wrote "mr. rogers loves mrs. __________" on the board for all to see. i was very tempted to write her up, but since it was after school i was nice and decided not to.

the kids call an item that is not in the best condition a "booty" object. i have been accused of giving out "booty" pencils since we got back because apparently they don't sharpen well. i think i have given out about 200 booty pencils from the beginning of the school year til now (literally).

i haven't heard "mr rah (this is how they pronounce my name) where the candy at?" or "i can have some candy mr. rah?" or "i'm hungry... what you got to eat bra?" quite as many times as i did first semester. again... small victories. i pray that the small victories keep accumulating and building into major ones. we shall see.... peace.

chronic misbehavior

2009-12-10T20:02:00.000-08:00

i was asked to give a written statement on the behavior of one of my worst behaved students today... it included the following... none of this is a lie or exaggerated...

"Examples of ________’s misbehavior in my class include, but are not limited to the following… cursing, talking back to the teacher, attempting to fight other students in the middle of class, verbal altercations with other students in class, sleeping in class, calling me “pimp, little gangster, player, boy” and other disrespectful phrases, discussing smoking weed in class, discussing fighting and or harming other students physically, slapping other students in the middle of class, getting out of his seat and leaving the classroom in the middle of class, threatening students, threatening the teacher, discussing sex, discussing drugs, discussing bowl movements, and other general lewd comments."

Also another one of my students who is a serious behavior issue was going Christmas caroling at a nursing home today with an after school program. When asked how she felt about the upcoming carols she responded. "Them old people better not mess with me or I'll slap them upside their head." I think she may have missed out on the Christmas spirit of the carols. Oh and one last one... here is a poem written by a student who I do not have in class, but who comes by my room every day and demands candy. It was written a couple of years ago, but is a gem nonetheless. It is entitled "Angry Poem"

"Roses is Red... Violets is Blue... Why everybody don't like Obama? That's some bullshit."

Have a nice day. Peace.

a welcome change...

2009-12-05T06:57:00.000-08:00

so i was all ready for today to be a normal saturday consisting of me vacuuming my house, going to wal-mart, and grading papers. but instead my friend joe davis posted a link to this website which has now distracted my attention for the past hour. it has so captivated me, and distracted me from the normalcy of teaching that i've now been thinking about changing the world as opposed to "why do they still not know what a linear function is?" anyway... i'll give a quick rundown of the week, and then i've posted the link (on my facebook page) to this website that has me thinking grandiose world-changing thoughts. if you are interested... check it out. while teaching has taught me quite a bit about the pains of idealism, i still can believe in an young idealistic movement such as this.... you can look at the website... my friend originally tagged me in a note about this movement and i will also post what i commented on said note below. you most certainly don't have to read that part. ok so this week.... i think i had some idea that after thanksgivng things were going to be "all better" HA! not quite. it wasn't a terrible week, but things still aren't going so hot in my classroom. i still lack lots of classroom management skills, even in my classes that are like 8 kids. things are most certainly better, but i'm still not very good at this. i have a lot of ideas of things i want to change after christmas break. i am hoping to get a few of my classes changed around so that i can go much quicker in two of my classes (i'm like 4 weeks behind where i am supposed to be... oops) last night at a basketball game i threw a candy bar wrapper at one of my students to pay them back for all the things they throw at me. it probably will end up being a bad decision come monday when she returns the favor in the middle of 6th period. ohh well. anyway, i hope to keep improving, and i am posting my comments about the website i spoke of earlier below. some of the comments have to be taken in the context of the conversation we had on that note, but most should make since when it stands alone.... hope all is well. peace.

ohhh dear goodness thank you so much joe davis for sending this my way. it was a much needed break from grading papers on a saturday morning. i've had a deep longing for this type of discourse this semester as i don't get much of it in my algebra one classes. i now feel the need to add to the conversation

1. i really really like the "let us rise movement" i think it is founded in some deep and true ideals. if a movement like this were to ever really get rolling here in the US i think it could begin to break the chains of intense rhetoric and polarization that so plagues or current political system. the movement currently seems to be a bit idealistic, but i hope it can hammer out more concrete stances as the movement grows.
2. growing up in the church leads me to the same thought process that you have here joe. that is, "why are we (we as in christians) not at the forefront of a movement like this?" however, the more i think about it, the more i begin to wonder.... why do we have to put the label of "christian" on it in order for us to truly believe that Christ is a part of a movement such as this? after reading the mission and guiding aspirations of this movement its obvious to me that Christ is very much a part of this. "choosing love at every opportunity" is Christ. we don't have to label it as "christian" in order for Christ to be very much in the middle of what is happening.
3. all that being said, i am in no way putting down what you are saying joe. i could not agree more. i just wanted to add that element to the conversation. i do firmly believe that it is sad that we as the church don't have these type of mission statements at the forefront of what we are doing. we have a lot to learn from an organization like this. which will be hard for the church to do as long as we continue along these lines of polarization... church vs. non-church... christian vs. non-christian.... saved vs. not saved.... if we as the church could realize that those harsh lines don't really exist and embrace a movement that seems completely dedicated to love (which according to 1 john 4:8, isn't that what God is?) i think we would be much better off. ... See More

ok i am going to return to those papers that are calling my name. thank you for this joe davis. and to you and johncarl both.... duke... i'm coming. give me a couple of years and i'll be there. peace.

thanksgiving

2009-11-29T20:04:00.001-08:00

thanksgiving break may have been the greatest experience of my entire life. it was so nice to see auburn people, family, and just relax. i managed to read a 480 page book in two days, work a little (too much according to richard rogers), and eat a lot. ohh thanksgiving was just wonderful. three more weeks and then a welcome two week break. i know i can make it two weeks no problem. oh i don't know if i mentioned this but every time it rains for more than five minutes our basement floods. haha. so yeah that happened tonight. nice little welcome back to arkansas present from our house. just realized i hadn't posted in awhile. life is good, ready for three more weeks.... kind of. peace.

oh and if you just so happen to be a male person who begot my existence (aka richard rogers).... the telling of the basement flooding is not just "another attempt to make my life sound miserable" it is simply a statment of fact. it rains.... our basement floods, just the way it is. peace.

seriously?

2009-11-14T15:44:00.000-08:00

so yesterday im giving a unit test which are worth 40% of the students' final grade. and what does a kid in my fifth period class decide to do during the middle of said test? answer his cell phone. and i don't mean answer it in a sly type of way in which you are attempting to hide it. i mean answer it, say hello in a normal speaking voice, and then proceed to have a conversation. "yeah i'm in class right now." you can't make this stuff up.

as a side note... i am extremely tired. it does not matter how much i sleep on the weekends i am always completely exhausted by tuesday afternoon. only a week and a half til thanksgiving. dear goodness i cannot wait. speaking of sleep... last night (friday night) i fell asleep on the couch around 7 o clock and slept til 6:45 this morning. it was pretty nice. hope everyone is doing well. peace.

a good day....

2009-10-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

so since my last post was semi-negative, i feel the need to update today and say that i had an extremely good day. my fifth period, which was slowly becoming my worst period, decided to do everything i told them to do. they all worked and most of them understood what i was teaching. it was great. one kid who had literally done nothing all year took down every note and tried to work every problem. i also helped a girl that goes to my church with calculus during my planning period, which made me feel way smarter than i actually am. ohh... and a kid (who isn't even my student) keeps coming to me for girl advice which is wonderful and hilarious. anyway, just wanted to give a postive update. hope all is well. peace.

trying to teach...

2009-10-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

so it has been awhile since i have updated. september and october have been pretty insane months. we just finished our first nine weeks of school so i am officially halfway done with my first semester of teaching. i can without a doubt say that this has been the most difficult nine weeks of my life, but has taught me more than i could even begin to imagine or describe. i can't even begin to go into what these nine weeks have been like, but if i had to sum it up in a cute, cliche phrase it would without a doubt be: up and down. some days have been great, some days kids seem to have learned something in my class, while others have been.... well... rough. a few quick notes...

the other day a kid in my second period class (the roughest class by far) stole a giant bag of candy out of my desk and proceeded to throw said candy at the rest of the class (i was not happy). the day before that i tried to help some of the kids out by letting them use calculators and they proceed to take out the batteries and turn off the screen displays and then tell me the calculators were broken just to throw me off. its amazing what kids will do to try to keep you from teaching your lesson.

i am planning on taking one of my worst behaved kids out to dinner this week, i really hope that helps me get through to him. some of my kids are so completly uninvested in my class, school, or really anything. i want so badly to get through to at least a couple of them.

our football team hasn't had the season we had hoped for... we are now 3-3 but still hoping for a big run in the playoffs. auburn has been horrifically dissappointing after a start that was way too good to be true. i was an idiot and ran my mouth of the week before the arkansas game, bad idea....

i've been blessed to meet some awesome people here in the helena. i've got three great roommates and several people at my school who are great at listening to me vent as a source of aleviating stress when things aren't going so well. i've also gotten involved in a church right down the street from my house, through which i've become involved in a community group on sunday nights which has been a welcome break from thinking about teaching 24-7.

i am giving this thing pretty much all i have right now, and so far i have experienced little to no data-based success. my kids are failing (gave out 40% Fs the first nine weeks.) however, at the end of the day as long as i can look myself in the mirror and say i'm pouring myself into this job and into these kids then i can sleep soundly. i know am i where i need to be, and i don't for one spilt second regret the decision to come teach in helena, arkansas. it is hard, but such is life. life is hard, but life is also good. keep me in your prayers. i hope to hear from some of you guys soon. peace.

(ps - this is simply meant as an honest update as to how my life is, not as any sort of pity party or venting session. i hate it when people do that.)

quick notes

2009-09-16T20:40:00.001-07:00

before seventh period another 1st year teacher comes up to me and hands me a note. a student in my seventh period class asks as she walks away... "is that your daughter?" i ask another student in my class... "how old you do you think i am?" she responds... "forty."

3rd period... my pre-ap, extremely well-behaved class is doing groupwork, they seem to be talking about things other than math. i ask one of the students if their conversation is math-related. she responds "actually yes it is, we were just talking about how we were all three going to get together and write a letter to the state nominating you for teacher of the year. we think that you should be featured on television as the best teacher in the country." of course, these were all lies she was spouting forth, but despite the overt sarcasm, i pretended she wasn't lying and it made me feel better about myself.

2nd period... one of the 9th grade football players in my class is not doing any work. i take him out the in hall to have a stern conversation with him. each time i say "why don't you do the work in my class?" or some version of that phrase, he responds "i do do my work." it takes all i have not to laugh. (only the truly immature may understand why.) i may look forty, but we see where my maturity level is...

one of the football players to me today, "coach, you know how badly i could hurt you right?" my response.... "yes".

things are going well. hope all is well at home. peace.

greater things have yet to come....

2009-09-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

just realized i haven't updated in awhile. i've been keeping pretty busy. as i said last post i work pretty much non-stop. i'm starting to realize that is just part of the real world though. i've had it much too easy my entire life, and in the real world you actually have to do stuff. doing stuff is hard. thefore this job is hard. but it definitely has its good spots. for example... i have decided that i will have four day weekend every weekend. this is why... my first two thursdays were really good days. i realized that both days i wore by orange and blue auburn tie. therefore i will now wear my orange and blue auburn tie every thursday, and every thursday will be auburn tie thursday. this means it doesn't matter how bad the day goes in class, that is trumped by the fact that it is auburn tie thursday. and then friday CANNOT be bad because it is friday and i get a break the next day. so there it is... four day weekend every week. oh yeah, i got my laptop stolen out of my classrom last monday (while i was in the room.) i turned my back for like two minutes and it was gone. i didn't realize it til the next class period though so by that time it was too late. so that sucked. i'm still somehow holding out hope that it will show up even though i know its gone. it was pretty sad because there are some files and things that i really cannot replace that were on that laptop. but i'm just going forward without the laptop. our football team is now 1-1. we lost the state championship rematch which sucked. we were down by 20 at halftime and made an awesome comeback only to end up loosing by two points. auburn looks pretty good to me so far this season by the way. i'm not getting too excited yet though. this job will continue to be hard and be a struggle but each day i will try to do everything i can to move my kids forward, even when they absolutely despise me (which it often seems like they do). that is all i can do, and that is all i will continue to do. there are lots of days that i really do look forward to going to school, not every single day by a longshot, but many days i do. even when after my last class i cannot imagine returning the next day, i do. its not near as hard as i want to think that it is. at the end of the day i'm just dealing with some kids that sometimes make me feel bad about myself. life is good despite the struggles. life is good. hope everyone is doing well. peace.

the ups and downs....

2009-08-29T13:29:00.000-07:00

well i already have a new level of respect for any and every teacher that i ever had throughout school. this job is no kind of easy. i just calculated it, and couting today i worked about 85 hours this past week. haha, that is including football practice though so i don't know if that actually counts. things are going pretty well, its a very much up and down kind of job. monday-wendesday were not too hot, with wednesday being especially challenging. on wednesday the kids had to take this state test that covered an entire year's worth of information that they had not been taught. i would probably be in a bad mood too. but luckily, they got to take it all out on me. hahaha. thursday was definitely the best day of teaching so far and many of the kids almost seemed to actually enjoy my class that day. days like thursday will have to carry me through the rough times. i really did not realize until this week exactly what i had gotten myself into, but i'm still convinced that i am where i need to be doing exactly what i need to be doing. so many of my students here are so jaded and it definitely comes across in their attitudes in class. its like i've asked them to haul cement blocks up a mountain in 110 degree heat when i ask them to take their heads off of their desks in class. and oh dear goodness when i gave a homework assignment on friday i swear i thought they were going to punch me. its going to be a challenging couple of years, but no doubt a good couple of years. i also had no idea how tiring being a teacher is. haha, i now understand why my mother goes to bed every night at 8:00 (its true erin.) last night was the second friday night in a row that i passed out before 9. hahaha. tonight i swear i'm going to try to stay awake past 10, we'll see if i can handle that. first football game this friday, ohhh i'm pumped. we had a scrimmage on tuesday and we destroyed the opposition. friday is the rematch from last year's state championship. pulaski academy. ohhh we better destroy those fools. ok, i'm gonna go to wal-mart now. peace.

every range of emotion possible.

2009-08-20T02:29:00.000-07:00

ok so i can't write too much because its 4 in the morning, and i need to quickly figure out just exactly what i am doing today. so yesterday was the first day and it was nuts to say the least. my first and second period classes were more or less out of control and did not listen to a word i said from the minute they walked in the door. third through seventh period were not nearly as bad but still seemed more or less uninterested in me in general. however, there were a few bright spots during the day. a couple of conversations with kids after class let me see that they really did want to learn despite their generally unpleasent demeanor in my class. one kid about made me cry because she was so sweet, shy, timid, and noticably scarred from the obvious effects of a rough life. this job is going to be tough. i can already see that after day one. i am nonetheless excited about going forward. just wanted to do a quick update. it will likely be awhile before i can get to another. life will be hectic starting right now. thanks for all the support. i hope all is well with everyone. peace.

the time draws near....

2009-08-16T07:45:00.000-07:00

just realized i haven't updated in awhile. i've been doing inservice, football practice, getting my room set up, and all of those fun type activities. just wanted to say that the kids are getting here on wednesday. pray for me. i'm feeling pretty good about it at this point; we'll see what happens when wednesday rolls around. i'll be sure to give an update after school starts. peace.

community

2009-07-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

ok first off i need to say something extremely important. it has come to my attention that most of the people reading my intensely important blog are doing so only via facebook. if you read the previous sentence and said to yourself something like "yes, that is true of me" you are missing out on something very incredible. the facebook updates are tied to my actual blog (http://thatdelta.blogspot.com/). you all must go there and look at it so the 45 minutes to an hour that i spend formatting the wonderful thing are not done in vain. ok, that is all on that subject.

things are still going well here in helena. my house actually looks like people live in it, which is strange. much props to my home decorators erin and cindy rogers for the wonderful job they did arranging my room and making it look like a grown person's. mom and i had several disagreements about things such as "throw pillows" which i saw as having no place in my new room while she adamantly disagreed. we compromised on one extra pillow. my house is pretty legit though. you should all come vist and check it out some friday in the fall when you come to watch the central cougars dominate the opposition while coach rogers excitedly fires up the team from the sidelines.

a quick story and then i shall be on my way. so we have these neighbors who are older and british and awesome. one of the first days we were here maureen (the wife) brought us some chicken salad and bagel chips. i found this to be quite a nice gesture so i, on a whim, invited them over for dinner on saturday night. i then returned to my kitchen and found that i had
a. nothing to cook b. nothing to cook with c. no idea how to cook. i quickly found a recipe out of the "hungry girl" cookbook my mother had so graciously bequeathed unto me and ran to wal-mart. i found myself buying things like can openers, measuring cups, etc. since we had none of these simple appliances. i then returned to the house to discover the george forman on which i was plannning on cooking dinner was smaller than i remembered and held but one piece of chicken at a time. the neighbors arrived around 6:30 (the time i told them dinner should be ready) and dinner was served promptly at 7:15 (the vegetables were also still cooking at that time). nonetheless, they seemed to enjoy the night. the food was edible and i now have lots of random spices in the cupboard. i plan on making the same chicken recipe about five more times so that none of it goes to waste. after the food we played some cards and neville (the husband) dominated us all in a game of presidents.

oh yeah as far as school goes... i've just been doing lots of planning for algebra 1 even though i'm still not 100% sure that i will be teaching that subject. i really do hope so, but i should find out later this week. the lineman are off this week for practice because the skill positions are still working 7 on 7 drills. we start practice in full pads at the beginning of august, and i am ready for that. one of my lineman is rated as one of the top ten in the state; that is pretty exciting.

the sense of community here is incredible. everyone has been so receptive and tfa seems to have a high reputation around helena. i've got a lot of "you guys do so much good work here." but also a lot of "well good luck with that" yesterday even a "do you have a concealed weapon permit?" but nonetheless, the way people have reached out and greated us has been inspiring and overwhelming. the sense of community i can already feel is why i wanted to teach in a rural area. people seem to find such wonder in the small beauties of life in rural communities. even though i know life will get extremely crazy once school gets started, i hope that i will continue to be able to reflect on the goodness of community. so many things have fallen into place so far that i can't help but believe this is exactly where i need to be. its now just up to me to do what i came here to do, invest in some kids lives. ok, that's enough for now. i'm out. peace.

new home.

2009-07-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

all moved into my new home in helena, arkansas. through some awesome networking i was able to find an actual house to live in over the next two years. the house is amazing and the rent is very very reasonable (less than the rent i paid for my small little aparment in auburn.) it will be myself and three other first year tfa guys. the house is already furnished and just overall amazing. its much nicer than anything i was expecting. over the past couple of days i have been getting acquainted with the town and doing as much moving in as i can. so far i love it here. the tfa support network is truly amazing and the second year corps members in helena have been overwhelmingly helpful. so far i've gotten a bed, end table, and computer desk for a total of $35. haha. i bought the computer desk and end table at a thrift store type place but had no way of getting it to my house. to help me out, the owner of the store decided to give me the keys to his truck and let me drive it over. ahh, how i love small towns.

i went and talked to the head football coach one of my first days being here and he said that he would be glad for me to help out so yesterday was my first official day of football practice. it was fantastic. our team made it to the state finals last year, only to loose to a team that they had already beaten earlier in the season. we open our season on the road against said team and i already have a deep dislike for them and i'm ready to beat them. the guy we are renting from is out of town and our "contact person" for the house just so happened to be a local preacher at a church that i was already thinking about checking out. so yesterday i went up to the church and talked to him for an hour or two. i have a feeling i will be needing much prayer over the next couple of years so i think that was a pretty good contact to make.

so to sum up, its been fantastic so far. i already feel like a member of this community in only two and half days.
our team is currently at a 7-on-7 football camp at the university of arkansas. yesterday i went up to the school to wish them luck before they left for camp. hearing three or four of them say "see you next week coach" was a particularly wonderful feeling. i can already see that the small, rewarding occurances such as that will help me make it through the next year. i've heard lots and lots of stories from second years about how difficult this job will be, and after only five weeks of institute i already can forsee much hardship coming my way. but, as i said, the small victories can and will push me through. hope everyone is doing well. update me on your lives. peace.

i knew my degree would come in handy

2009-07-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

so tomorrow i start to teach my kids about economies. i find that ironic. so four years of studying economics actually paid off. tomorrow i get to teach my kids all about supply and demand, equilibrium price and quantity, price floors and price ceilings, externalities in the market, and heteroskedasticity. ok i lied, tomorrow we are learning this... economy = jobs and money. should be a good time. i need to go finish my lesson plan, just wanted to share that irony publicly.

long weeks that fly by....

2009-06-27T18:00:00.000-07:00

so i realize that the last entry was a little depressing and probably preeminently so. i have way too long to go and way too many things that will be much more difficult than anything i have experienced so far to be getting depressed already.

on that note, things the rest of the week were much better. i felt much more effective with the my three childrens and i felt like they were actually learning. they've all been doing better and better on the end of class assessments that they take each day so hopefully they are learning at least something. i found out on friday that i will probably be teaching 6 classes of about 25 students in the fall so i don't know exactly how well my three kids are preparing me for that experience. i guess we will see. i also learned on friday that my high school went to the state finals in football last year. hopefully the offensive line coach also quit his job. we will see. i want to coach. end of story.

some days are awesome, some days are rough. that continues to be the theme of this extravaganza. i realize each day how much more i have to learn, and i try not to let that overwhelm me. to relate this post back to the subject, its crazy that i've been here for three weeks, almost four if you count induction. the weeks are so long, yet they fly by. by wednesday i'm usually ready to see friday come, but it seems like i blink my eye and the week is gone. there is just so much going on at all times during the day it makes things go by pretty quick like. two highlights of the week:
1. all three of my kids have problems with the english language. they know how to speak it, but reading and writing are a struggle. one day we just sat down and read a story because it was "review day" and i attempted to help them learn how to read. it was pretty amazing, made me wish i was teaching reading.
2. on friday one of my three asked me after class, "so are you going to be teaching here like when real school starts?" when i informed him that i sadly wasn't, he dropped his head and walked off.... extremely sad, but also gave me some hardcore motivation.

to sum up - life is good. there are days that are hard, but that just makes the good days even more rewarding. its only beginning, i hope people will be interested enough to keep reading when it really gets good. peace.

ahhh... i get it now...

2009-06-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

so yeah..... all that stuff that tfa said about, "you are going to feel like a failure lots of times" is now actually starting to make sense. i only have three students right now, and i feel like i am failing them. how am i supposed to teach three or four classes of twenty or more students in the fall if i can't even teach three right now? its not as easy as one might think, this whole teaching thing. i have no misbehavior issues, but that doesn't mean that my studetns are actually learning anything in my class. today i was outside of class because the fire alarm had gone off and i asked carlos (one of my three) what we had learned in class so far this summer. he responded with a solid.... "uhhhh..." and was silent for another good 10 or 15 seconds. he then luckily was able to rattle off a few key topics, but trust me it was not a good feeling. i know i've only been teaching for a week and i know it will get better, but failure does not feel too good. this is what i asked for though. i wanted something challenging and this is and will be extremely challenging. i can't imagine what it will be like in the fall with 20 to 30 eyes on me, some interested, some not, waiting for me to teach them. its going to be a long road. just wanted to rant for a bit, back to lesson planning.

placement.

2009-06-18T18:08:00.000-07:00

found out my placement today. i'll be teaching and living in helena, arkansas teaching either algebra 1 or geometry at central high school. i'm extremely pumped. perhaps even more exciting than anything, a former tfa corps member and auburn alum (former plainsman at that) lives in helena. i was very worried about who i was going to be able to watch auburn games, problem sovled. war eagle, gotta go do stuff. peace.

actually teaching...

2009-06-16T13:40:00.001-07:00

so monday started my actual first day of teaching. its been ridiculously awesome so far. last time i talked about how i had gotten the short end of the stick on schools because we have further to go meaning less sleep and because i'm teaching social studies as opposed to my actual placement (high school math) BUT to make up for all of that, i got an amazing class. there are FOUR kids in my class, haha. only two were there today. it makes the dynamic a little different, but i have zero behavioral issues. it also means i get to work one on one with the kids constantly. as i said, i'm pretty lucky but it will make things much different when i get my class of 20 something kids in the fall. still haven't heard about placement yet, supposed to be finding out this week.

so sunday night i had fully convinced myself that i was going to be absolutely terrible at this. i felt totally unprepared to teach on the following day, and as i laid down i wondered the typical thoughts of "what i have i gotten myself into?" i had given up on re-writing my first day agenda for the 20th time around 1230 and just went to bed not feeling good about the day that was to come. because tfa is stocked full of the perpetual overachievers people had made posters, elaborate art projects, and laid out extensive behavioral and investment plans. as i went to bed with my white butcher paper containing my lousy two expecations and one semi-fancy poster containing the first line of the auburn creed, i knew i was doomed. i woke up around 2:00 and again every other minute (literally) after that and finally pulled myself out of bed to start the day at 5:30. in the end, it was fine. my first day wasn't perfect, but i'm pretty sure i wasn't alone in that. as i said, i lucked out beyond belief with the kids they put me with. they are awesome.

i feel like i must inclue in every post a summary of my sleeping schedule so that i can thoroughly prove to people that this thing is as intense as i said it was going to be. so i "caught up" on sleep from last week saturday night, getting a wonderful seven and a half hours. so sunday night, slept from about 12:30 to 2 and last night from 2 to 5:30. i'm shocked at how not tired i am right now. it actualy works out pretty well: i get a cup of coffee in the morning, start to get tired on the bus ride home in the afternoon, but go for a run to wake me up, and then hit up some coffee around 11. so life is good, thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. im loving every minute of it so far, but i am well aware the lows will hit equally as hard as the highs. i'll keep updating as much as possible. hope everyone is well.

its hot as frick in houston.

2009-06-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

i always claimed that auburn was about the hottest place on earth. i was sadly mistaken. its currently 97 degrees in the lovely city of houston, and it feels like 105. i've been running this week at around 5 o clock in the afternoon and it brings new meaning to the word humid. however, running is how i am keeping my sanity. i also just joined the university of houston gym, which is about the nicest thing i've ever seen in my life. to compare it to the auburn student act would be like comparing george w. bush's state of the union to president obama's. its ridiculous.

i got placed in the school that is furthest from the university campus, so that means our bus departs at 6:15 am. so i'm up at about 5:30 every morning and we get back around 5 in the afternoon. usually go for a quick run, dinner, and then work til anywhere from 10 to 12. i guess that is what is to be expected if you are learning how to teach in five weeks though.
to clarify, however, i love it here. there are moments i'm completely overwhelmed. but those moments have been few and far between. despite the stressful schedule, life is good. the other corps members are awesome and keep me going.

monday i actually start teaching, which makes me insanely nervous. i am teaching sixth grade social studies this summer, and the principal accidently "let it slip" to all the sixth graders that their "new teachers" had never been in the classroom before. the students wrote notes to us, one of the notes a fellow corps member received said "i don't care what you have to say. i don't like school. don't mess with me or i will get buck on you." so yeah, that freaked me out. we also watched a video of a tfa first year corps member last year at institute whose class was the most out of control thing i have ever seen. i thirteen year old girl, wearing large sunglasses shouted "blah blah blah" as the teacher tried to explain the rules and asked the teacher "do you know who i am?" so yeah, it made me nervous. i've convinced myself that i can handle it though. i've already signed a couple of people up for this, but if anybody would like to send me an encouraging text message around 11 o clock monday morning, it would be very helpful. haha.

i took that danged praxis test this morning and it was hard hard hard. i hope beyond hope that i passed. its questionable. so TONIGHT is the first night in a week and a half that i can relax and SLEEP PAST 6 O CLOCK TOMORROW. sadly for joel osteen i don't think i'll be making it to see him preach in the morning. i am determined to see the show at some point while i'm here though. i'm about to go out with some people for a wonderfully relaxing night of no work and, with all apologies to mee-maw and others of the like, a beer will never have tasted so good. i feel as if i've made this experience sound depressing, its really not. i love it so far. just stressful. thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers. gotta go. peace.

in houston...

2009-06-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

just finished my "induction" in the delta. we stayed at delta state university for the past three days in cleveland mississippi. so far everything has been awesome. induction was basically set up for us to meet the other tfa corps members in mississippi and to interview with principals. i interviewed with one school called KIPP, which is a ridiculously hardcore school in helena, arkansas. look it up (www.kipp.org). no telling if i will actually be placed at this school (likely that i won't) i think the interviews were more for us to find out information about the delta than anything. overall, the experience has been awesome thus far. there are 287 first year tfa teachers here, which is insane. we are now the 2nd largest tfa region in the country (behind new york) they are expecting a lot out of our group, which makes me all the more excited and nervous. i've met an insanely diverse group of people so far. there are peple here from oregon, new york, california, new jersey, boston, etc. etc. its a far stretch from my experiences in savannah or auburn. i live each day in a complex between optimistic idealism and pessimistic realism. what i have in front of me the next few years seems incredibly daunting but i will remain hopeful. in our region, only 10 percent of low-income eighth-graders score proficient in math. that is just one of the many statistics i could throw out to show how difficult this will prove to be. however, in hearing some of the stories of success from the tfa corps members i've met, i know this whole thing can happen.

i'll be teaching at sharpstown middle school in houston, texas for the next five weeks. from everything i've heard about institute, (which is where i am now) it is supposed to be crazy intense with our schedules going from about 6 am to 10 pm M-F, with lesson plans to be done after that. so it all starts tomorrow. keep praying for me. i'm going to be tired, but its going to be good stuff. the people around me have already proven themselves to be incredibly supportive and helpful. i need to be up at 5am so sleep beckons. peace.

ready to roll..

2009-05-30T21:40:00.000-07:00

i know that it is likely that people are uninterested in what i have to say until the actual teaching part of this journey begins, however i feel compelled to write something if for no other reason than i almost always have something i can ramble on about (note the subtitle of the blog)

i'm currently in auburn, and as each day passes i become more and more ready to get started with all of this. i have done all the talking i can possibly do about my new opportunity with teach for america. i am ready to actually do something. thursday is the big day, i travel to mississippi to meet with different principals and interview in order to be placed in a school district. i won't find out about my exact placement until sometime at institute, which is causing me a little bit of nervousness.

as i previously stated, i'm just ready to do this thing. in reading the assigned work, reflecting on these readings in writing form, talking to people about tfa, reading about the delta, etc, i just get more and more excited and more and more nervous at the same time. the continued theme of all of this seems to be: "this is an great opportunity that will make you a much better person, but its going to suck majorly at times." this opinion(which seems to be widely held by most involved in the program) for obvious reasons is the subject of much concerned excitement at this point.

as a side note i am tired of studying for this praxis test. i've studied over 40 hours and i don't want to study any more.

i am tempted to go on a long rant about these books i've been reading lately. i've been doing a lot of reading about postmoderism, deconstruction, philosphy, and religion (most of it is written on a very simplistic level though, don't worry i'm not as smart i want to sound) anyway, the ideas i have gardered from these books are not developed well enough to try to rant about them even in my ranting zone over here in blog world. i also don't want to make myself an oppurtune target for the criticism that would surely befall my leftist, liberal, watered-down, heretical beliefs. however, if anybody is interesed in reading up on this stuff here's what i've been reading. brian mclaren (a new kind of chrisitian, the story we find ourselves in, everything must change) jack caputo (what would jesus deconstruct) and robin meyers (saving jesus from the church) oh yeah and i'm also working on the appeal by john grishman but he hasn't mentioned postmodern philosphy yet. but if anybody is interested in talking about any of this good stuff, let me know. (unelss you want to tell me that all of the books i just listed were written by pagan racketeers that are sending me down a path to hell.) at least let me get my beliefs about what they are saying in order before you condemn me with them. ok that's enough... oh i just got my address for houston so if you want to send me some mail for some reason.....

Levi Rogers/Corps Member
c/o Teach For America
University of Houston
Moody Towers
4401 Wheeler Street
Houston, TX 77004

take two...

2009-05-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

ahh, so lots of you are thinking, "first off, i wasn't planning on reading this anyway, why are you making another one of these?" well, for a couple of reasons, one is that i had some technical difficulties with the other blog and second, i can do cool stuff on this one that the other wouldn't let me. so tough, this is the actual blog though.

so i went back and read my first post and i don't know who put me up on my high horse over there, but i sure sound like i'm trying to be awful "look how social justicey i am over here," and that is worthless. so, to sum up from my last blog post: i just graduated from auburn and now i am moving to the mississippi delta to teach high school math. why am i doing this? because it sounds pretty cool to me. i get to teach for the next two years in a place that sounds like it needs some people who are excited about teaching some kids. i think the last post came from my ivory tower because i was so tired of getting those "what on earth are you thinking?" looks from people. but i am learning to live with that. what i am doing is not for everybody, but i am becoming convinced that it is where i should be for the next two years. while all the quotes i threw out last time in my first blog post (the first post is on my facebook page if you haven't read it) are no less true or no less pertinent to my reasoning for doing this, i need not be so arrogant as to say that my efforts will have an effect on these "systemic injustices." i can only humbly try, which is what i'm doing.

so there's the scoop on what i am doing for the next two years and why. i will attempt to update this as often as possible with what is going on. for those of you who know me, i tend to rant beyond belief so if you are looking for conciseity, might want to venture on over to another blog. but in an effort to shut up before i talk for an hour, i will end this. for those curious, i head to mississippi june 4th. that is when it all begins, from then til now i'm in savannah and auburn, reading the 1230492309 pages they assigned us and studying for this test i have to take so that i can teach. that's all. sorry about all the blog confusion. peace.