Raise your hand if you’ve ever found yourself in one of these
precarious situations:
. . .The 3 o’clock bell rings. You dash to your car,
shift the gear to “D,” and speed through the exit sign
minutes before the school buses can leave the parking lot.
. . .You call roll in your 9th Grade homeroom and discover that
little Deonte—the class clown—is absent for the third day in row because he has
the flu. On the attendance log, you mark an empathetic excused
absence next to his name, BUT in your own mind you say to yourself,
"Yes! He’s out for the rest of the week!”
. . .You’re sitting in the very first session of your district’s
back-to-school Fall Institute. Instead of giving your attention to the first
speaker up, you’re thumbing through your cell phone and syncing your
Google calendar app to chart all upcoming breaks—including Fall
break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring break.
If you’re a ninth-grade teacher or administrator and you’re
willing to admit at least one of these scenarios sounds vaguely familiar, just
know that you are not alone! Let’s face it, working with ninth
graders is no glamour job, and sometimes the need to “get away from it all” can
be almost overbearing. An incoming freshman class can be the most
challenging among all grade levels in a high school setting as our bright-eyed
and bushy-haired youngsters bring with them a wide range of issues—raging
hormones, unbridled energy, and fear and apprehension, to name a few. However,
on the flipside, working with “mama’s high school babies” can be one of the
most rewarding experiences ever.
If this is your school year to work with ninth graders, and
you’re feeling just a little bit hesitant, then you might want to follow this
blog. Surviving Ninth Grade is tailored to the interests
of teachers, administrators, and support staff who work with what some might
consider a high school’s most vulnerable population. So, who am I to tell you
this?
Over the past two decades, I’ve devoted over half my tenure in
education to working with ninth graders in some capacity—as a classroom
teacher, as a department head, and as an administrator of special populations.
In other words, along the way I’ve garner the necessary skills, knowledge, and
experience to offer some important insights. However, you don’t have
to just take my word. In this blog, you will also gain insights from
co-workers, colleagues in the field, and professional acquaintances I’ve met
online who have willingly agreed to share snippets of their survival stories
with me. I, in turn, look forward to sharing their stories in this blog as a
source of inspiration for you.
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