It was exciting to ask the question: what do we know about the ball when it reaches its highest point? They kind of stared at me for a little bit, and I asked them about the velocity of the ball as it was traveling upward. Well, the students said, it's slowing down until it reaches the top, then it starts speeding up again as it falls back down. Exactly right! For a brief moment in time, the velocity of the ball is zero, and it changes directions. This was a crazy revelation for many of my students, and I loved it! We also had a good discussion about air resistance, and how if we lived in a world with no air resistance, every object dropped from the same height (no matter its weight) would hit the ground at the same time. We talked about different gravitational pulls on different planets. It was really exciting! (And I was really glad I took some physics in college because I needed to answer a lot more of their questions than I had been expecting.) I was really proud of so many of my students for really actively listening and asking in-depth questions. They were really engaged and thinking.
However, there were a few students that didn't seem to connect at all. One student walked out of class every day and didn't come back until the end of the period. I had been having a lot of trouble with him all semester. He is not a disruptive student by any means - he is very quiet. However, if you bring any attention to him, positive or negative, he responds in such a condescending manner. I've been trying for quite a while to get to know him and dig beneath his many layers, but it just hasn't happened. And when he started leaving class every day, I grew very concerned that he was missing so much material. How do you bring a student back into the class and re-engaged? How do you get the student to open up to you? Or even just to respect you? I guess I'm just still struggling with that whole student motivation thing.
Also, one day I noticed that same student chewing gum during class, so I asked him to spit it out. He argued with me, as he often does. But he got up to go to the trash can. Then about fifteen minutes later, I realized he was still chewing gum. So I asked him again, and he argued that he was a senior and that it was "mango smoothie" flavor, so he shouldn't have to spit it out. Right. So he got up again, and when I noticed again that he hadn't actually spit out the gum, I gave him the option to go to the office. All the other students at this point were yelling to him, "Don't go. That's stupid. It's not worth it." But he indeed chose to leave.
So after class, I went to the office to make sure he had also gone. He had not, but I luckily ran into him and one of the headmasters at the same moment. So I asked her if he had come to see her, and she said no. So he said that I kicked him out of class for chewing gum, which he thought was unreasonable. I reminded him that I had given him a choice after asking several times to spit out his gum. So the headmaster backed me up and asked him to apologize to me and to make sure it didn't happen again.
After this had all happened, I felt silly. It seemed so ridiculous to go to the headmaster over a student chewing gum. I didn't want to become a teacher so I could nag kids about rules. However, I suppose it comes with the job. I wondered if this was following my ideals and philosophies or if this wasn't against it. I couldn't decide. I don't really care about students chewing gum or wearing hats, but I do believe in consistency. It is a school-wide rule, and I do feel like it undermines other teachers' authority if I don't also stick to the rules. Furthermore, it's part of holding the students to higher standards in the sense that they also must learn to follow rules and be respectful of other people's environments. I couldn't go into some cathedrals or mosques with my shoulders and midriff bare, so the students must also be respectful of what the school and teachers ask. Does that seem reasonable?
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