Today, from 9:15 to 10:30, I was in Mrs. Johns' classroom. It was certainly the most interesting day thus far. To begin, there was a physical altercation among a few female students in the school. Two of the students walked into Mrs. Johns' classroom asking to speak with another student. Seeing that this could be the beginning of a problem, Mrs. Johns was very adamant that the students were not to be in her room and very firmly asked them to leave. Though the did leave the room, as soon as they were outside, the students began to hit each other, leading to a scene in the hallway. Despite the fact that this was a very stressful moment, Mrs. Johns remained calm and was able to handle the situation very well. She very quickly returned to her room once administration had the situation under control, which subtly told her students that this was not something that was to be discussed and that everything was being handled appropriately.
The way that Mrs. Johns was able to take care of this was such a wonderful learning experience for me. I have never been on the "adult side" of this type of situation. I witnessed many fights in my middle and high schools, but the experience was very different from the other side. Instead of acting panicked or magnifying the situation, Mrs. Johns and the other teachers at CCHS displayed an calm demeanor, which in turn calmed the students.
When this situation was handled and all the students were ready to work, they completed a quiz. This week, they learned about Booker T. Washington and W.E.B DuBois and had compared two speeches the two men gave. The quiz featured vocabulary words and facts from the speeches.
Students then turned to work on a writing prompt. The principle of CCHS sent out an email to all of the teachers that detailed the ways that they could teach their students about the meaning of a legacy. Mrs. Johns took this idea and turned it into her writing assignment for the next week of class. She asked students to consider three questions:
1. Who is an influential African American? What did they accomplish?
2. What are some ways that you could positively impact society?
3. What do you want your legacy to be?
Many students chose Martin Luther King and were writing about his life, but one student, going against the crowd, chose Nat Turner. This student explained that he had always heard from his grandparents and older members of his community that what Nat Turner accomplished in his life was inspiring to them. The student finished his summary of Turner's life, and moved on to the next questions. When I pressed him on what he could do in his community to be a positive impact, he felt that there was nothing that he could do. He explained to me that he thought that his community would remain the same no matter what, particularly in reference to racism.
Hearing this student describe his feelings toward change opened my eyes to exactly what some students in this community are feeling and experiencing. They feel that there is no way to get out or change their surroundings, which makes me wonder what they have seen in the past that has caused them to believe this about life.
These two instances, the altercation and this student's comments, are two things that I don't think I will forget.
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