Is it revenge?

Sometimes teaching can be incredibly frustrating.  There are all sorts of reasons, which I'm sure most everyone has heard before:  grading, kids not doing homework, poor attendance, under-involved parents, over-involved parents, kids behaving badly, standardized testing, teacher evaluations...the list goes on and on.

What has me particularly frustrated lately is the complete and total lack of respect for the "stuff" that I keep in my classroom.  For a reason that happens all too often in middle schools but that would take way too long to explain, I do not teach in my own classroom for the first three periods of the day.  I teach in a different location, and someone else teaches students in my classroom for two of those three periods.  EVERY day for the last several months, when I return to my own classroom for fourth period, I discover something of mine that has been either broken, missing, or defaced.  

Here are just a few examples:  I had several USB drives, belonging to other students, in the top drawer of my desk.  They have all gone missing.  I had some spare change in there.  It was stolen too.  I have found candy wrappers and chewed up sunflower seeds are all over the computer tables and the floor.  I found my Keurig coffee maker broken with water inside, indicating that someone had been messing with it in my absence.  Snacks like cheese and fruit have been stolen out of my fridge, and candy stolen from my desk. Usually it is little things like lollipops or Jolly Ranchers, but one morning at Christmas time I brought in a 1-lb bag of Skittles as part of a gift for a "secret Santa" exchange.  I placed it inside a folded-over plastic grocery bag, underneath my purse, in the bottom of a drawer.  When I returned three class periods later it was gone. A quick e-mail to my colleagues was all it took to find out who on campus was eating out of a giant purple bag of Skittles all day long, but still - these are my things!  It isn't just my things that the kids have no respect for, it's the school property and classroom supplies that are there to make things easier for them as well.  I kept self-inking stamps for grading papers in my top drawer, but I had to lock them up because I kept finding that all of my tabletops had been stamped while I was away. Computer headphones and microphones - brand new as of this school year - have been snapped in two. Every day I find markers and pencils thrown in the trash or on the floor in the corner behind the garbage can - evidence of the "trashketball" games that the boys like to play for competition.  There's more - lots more - but you get the idea.  I've taken to locking up everything I possibly can, but since the only thing in my room that locks is my desk, my space is limited.  

Today the thing I found broken was a ceramic cross - somewhat sentimental because it was given to me as a token of love when I was going through chemotherapy for cancer treatment a few years back.  it wasn't out for the kids to find - it was in my top desk drawer - the only one that doesn't lock.  I found a piece of it on the carpet, and another piece all the way across campus in front of another building.  There were a couple of other pieces that I couldn't find.  I am used to this routine by now, but this one hurt a little bit.  

The kids in this classroom when I am away - they know me.  Not well, but they know this is my room and these are my things.  I was their teacher at the beginning of the year.   My administration moved me to another room to teach a different set of kids because I had certification that nobody else had. It wasn't my choice.  But it seems like these kids take it personally.  The class they are in is an extremely small group - no more than six kids at any given time.  They all happen to be black students from a low-income area, and come from backgrounds very different from my own.  I'm not sure if they think I abandoned them, or didn't like teaching them, or what.  What I cannot for the life of me understand, is why they do this to me every day.  I believe it is an intentional effort to upset me.  What I don't understand is why.  This is the kind of thing that makes it very hard for some people to want to teach kids in "urban settings."   I can relate.   How am I supposed to reach kids who treat others this way on purpose?  Sometimes it definitely feels like they are too far gone already.  

Very Sad News

I have these two students.  Brothers.  Both fail more classes than they pass.  Both are absent frequently.  Both get in lots of fights.  At least one has been arrested.  Both know how to get right under my skin without even trying.  They walk up to my desk and take things without asking permission.  They wander around the classroom all period looking for someone to bother.  They steal out of my classroom fridge when I'm not looking.  Both have mouths that could make a sailor blush.  They are well versed in the revolving doors of the dean's office and the in school suspension room.  At our school we have meetings about these children at least once a year.  To the best of my knowledge, no parent or guardian has ever shown up to any meeting.  Rarely does an adult even answer a phone call from the school.  And nothing with these two students ever seems to change.  "That mom," I've been guilty of thinking on several occasions, "Where is she?  She needs to do something about those kids.  She should show up at school once in a while.  She should return a phone call once in a while.  Oh, that's right," I think to myself smugly, "She's probably got more important places to be."  

Last week I found out that she really does have more important places to be.  She's in the ICU.  It's grim. That's why the boys have been absent so much lately.  Boy, did that knowledge put me back in my place.

You know what?  I love kids.  I teach the kids that others don't want to teach, and I tolerate a lot more than most teachers would because I look for the motivation behind the actions rather than just punishing the actions.  I work really hard to be tolerant and loving and kind.  And guess what?  I still have a long way to go.  Sometimes I really screw up in my assessments.  I am ashamed to say it, but it was much easier for me to blame what I perceived as bad behavior on what I perceived as negligent parenting than it was for me to really try to get to know what was going on with these kids or this family. Stereotyping is always easier than listening, but the right thing and the easy thing are rarely ever one and the same.  

Addressing "Racist" Teachers

In my setting I spend a lot of time with "struggling" kids.  I'm more of an at-school parent or mentor than a teacher.  Every day I review students' grades with them, help them understand what needs to happen to bring them up if necessary, and try to help them reflect on the choices they make so they can see the consequences more clearly.  I often hear a variety of excuses from students for their low grades or repeated behavior referrals, and the one that I hear most often is, "That teacher doesn't like me."  It usually isn't true, of course, but it feels like reality to some of those students.  When I ask the kids why they think that I hear all kinds of reasons - "She gave me lunch detention," "She called my mama," "I turned that paper in and she didn't give me credit" - things like that.  Unfortunately, I also occasionally hear from my students the opinion that certain teachers are racist.  And sometimes, I see where the kids are coming from with those remarks.

I have heard colleagues share some nasty opinions about some of their students.  In those comments race is never mentioned, though it is always implied.  With other colleagues, I have never heard anything offensive come out of their mouths, but the expectations they have for their students and their responses to the students' behaviors make it clear to me that race is a divisive issue in their classrooms.  I may be one of the few teachers on campus who has the opportunity to make such observations due to the nature of my role, and I often struggle with how to respond to my colleagues when students point out that race is an issue with those teachers.  I am curious to hear how other professionals would approach a colleague, if they would at all, when they hear students describing that teacher as "racist."  Please share your thoughts.  Thanks!