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To John Cena--
You started at the pre-school reading level this year. Now you can read at the 3rd grade level. That is why I am giving you this book to keep. I am very proud of your hard work this year. I can't wait to work with you again in 8th grade.
-- Ms. Shyu
Do you think I care that we live on a mesa in the middle of the desert? Not really. I only have three students in my resource reading class this week since most of my students are either expelled, suspended or on a week-long, school-sponsored field trip. So, my three amigos and I (as we were dubbed by John Cena) went on a little adventure today. We did some beach reading.
They wore their summer's best. We forgot our sunglasses and sunscreen (but I did take the opportunity to laud the benefits of sunscreen. I live in fear of wrinkles). They picked out their reading books and I brought my own, "Guns, Germs and Steel." I brought my (only) two towels and a large sheet. I even made iced tea the night before. We were ready to make our own beach.
We walked to the edge of the mesa, a quarter mile away from the academic building. None of them had ever been to the beach before, so I tried explaining to them what it was like. The sand is usually soft, kind of like the light brown dirt we were laying our towels down on. And you didn't have to kick away the tumbleweed and scrubby grasses. You can hear the soft swish and rumble of the ocean deep in your ears, kind of like how the wind was blowing on the mesa at 30 mph. And everywhere there is blue, from the sky to the sea. They could understand that part a little better. In New Mexico, the bright, blue sky never ceases to stretch. We also happened to be on the side of the mesa that faced the lake. Yes, out of all of mesas I found myself living on, this one has a real body of water by it.
The students and I kicked off our shoes, poured ourselves cups of lukewarm iced tea and lay back on our homemade beachfront property. We faced the sky and the lake and we read our books. I explained that this was the really good part about learning to read: Actually bringing a book somewhere and reading for fun.
At the end, one of the girls turned to me, brimming with excitement. She asked, "Ms. Shyu, you should really take us to the beach. You should just take us home with you!" I just smiled. I thought back to all of the beaches I had ever taken for granted. I know that by teaching, I am (hopefully) empowering my students to attain things like beach vacations on their own. But at that moment, I would have done almost anything to give it to her just for being her.
Like the slacker I am, I didn't plan any of my field trips until the week before I needed to go. They were organized in a rush, with me running around the administration buildings begging for purchase orders to be signed mere minutes before the bus left. And now, I feel so guilty for having not taken them out earlier in the school year. Because even though all we did was go to the Denny's in North Gallup, it put my kids in their element. It showed them and me why the hell we're doing all this to begin with. (Because sometimes teachers have to be reminded to.)
This is what we worked toward all year. Assessments, standardized tests and unit exams are necessary evils. But when you get down to it, the real progress that I see among my students is in their confidence. John Cena can find the type of burger that he wants in the menu. My other seventh grader knows how to lay her napkin on her lap. They can all budget. They can all figure out how to calculate 15% tip by hand. They aren't (as) afraid of asking questions and paying in public. I should have done this long ago.
The content I teach my students is dictated by their individual education plans. Those plans instruct me to teach multi-digit multiplication, addition and subtraction. Those plans tell me to make sure they read at a second grade level by the end of the year. But slowly throughout the year, I read behind the lines. Because what those plans really are telling me is that my meaty eighth grader needs to learn how to multiply because he needs to learn how to calculate the tip for his meal. And John Cena needs to learn how to read at the second grade level, because he needs to learn how to figure out the what the heck is in a Creole Scrambler.
My instruction in the resource room is to help these students learn enough to be mainstreamed back into the general education classroom. But what I knew for a long time, but didn't fully apply, was that my job is also to mainstream these students into society. Apparently that means playing "restaurant word problems" once a week (I bring in my mom's fancy Chinese embroidered table cloth, plastic dish sets, fruit, cookies and napkins) and eating at the local Denny's restaurant. Watching my students mustering up everything they learned throughout the school year according to their IEPs and applying it at Denny's was among the proudest moments for me this year. I should have done this earlier. I should have done this more.
