PhyreBards

Ms. Rogers eagerly explained to me the school wide classroom management plan that she uses in her classroom the first time we met. She explained that the school encourages, but it is not required, this course of action to foster student respect for the teacher and each other in the classroom. The first day of class each period defines their rules for the semester on a 'contract.' They are recorded on a large piece of paper and displayed at the front of the room throughout the semester. Ms. Rogers formally types the rules and distributes them within the first week. All of the students (and teacher) sign the contract display, promising to abide by the laws of the contract all semester. I looked at each period’s and most of them vary slightly, but all of them include respecting each other, which means not interrupting or talking when someone else is speaking, and avoiding put downs.

Whenever a student (or teacher) does something that goes against the contract, anyone in the classroom may call a foul. Ms. Rogers may be in the middle of a lecture and someone will call a foul and it is addressed immediately. The instances that I see the most often are students making rude comments to one another or talking while the teacher is leading an activity. Students call one another out and in response Ms. Rogers 'addresses the foul' and the student that was called out has to say two positive things about the person they fouled, and they must be sincere. 'She is nice' is not an acceptable compliment and the students are really good about coming up with them. I've learned a lot about the students in the class (hobbies, subject interest) by listening to the compliments each student receives.

Ms. Rogers admitted that at first students took up a lot of class time giving out fouls, and then they realized that what was not completed in class was assigned as homework. She said that the system really fixed itself in time and it was worth the wait. I have to admit that it is a lot more pleasant for Ms. Rogers to say to a student that is being disruptive, 'check the contract' rather than screaming all class period long and it really make a difference in behavior.

So, as we all know by this point, I doing my internship in an AP Literature class. On Thursday I asked Mrs. Garrison if the school system pays for the students' AP tests or if it comes out of the students' pockets? She told me that the students must pay for their own tests and there is some need-based funding, but of the course the students must jump through a couple of hoops to get that money.

This frustrates me. I would say that most students take AP classes for a couple of reasons: to boost their GPA; to show their strength of class schedule for college apps; to earn college credit; and for the intrinsic desire for a challenge. Well, of course they are not required to take the AP test at the end of their course, in fact Mrs. Garrison was saying that they don't encourage some students to take the test for fear of the school's test scores dropping.

I didn't realize how lucky I was for my school system to pay for my AP exams and how much of an edge that gave me. Granted we were required to take the AP exam and expected to perform well, but it was comforting to know that I didn't have to worry about shelling out so much money to take a test.

This just seems to be one area where funding is lacking in our schools. I hate to hear Dr. Pyne talk about how most English teachers are limited in what pieces of literature they teach by what's already in the text book and by what the school already owns. Absurd. I guess with more funding though, comes less funding in another area or increased taxes.

Will our schools ever have enough resources for every child?