The A-Team: Mr. Hough Returns to School

Hi fans,

So once again, the state government is demanding I 'work' in order to receive a paycheck... no more paid summer vacation for me.

(frown face.)

While sitting around the house playing video games, tending my yard, soaking up sun, and (not) sleeping is fun and all, the State has convinced me that working is, in fact, 'where it's at.' We'll see. I get to jump back into a classroom and, once again, attempt to teach the indifferent youth of America a bunch of stuff they'll end up forgetting the minute they step out of class when the bell rings.

Hooray.

This year, my school is placing me in charge of what I like to call 'The A-Team,' or 7th Grade, Team A (I personally like 'A-Team' better... sounds more explosion-y). The A-Team is made up of all the kids that scored a 1 or 2 (but mostly 1) on Florida's infamous, standardized disaster, the FCAT. This is the lowest score possible, so these kids need the most help in school.


Enter Mr. Hough.

My administrators tell me that this position of mine was established due largely to my 'visual, hands-on style of teaching.' I do a lot of projects, too, and I do I think this is part of the reason... but only to a small extent. I think the real reason they stuck me in this spot and not, say, one of the veteran, senior-ranking, teacher-of-the-year types was because they did not want to lose any of those veteran, senior-ranking, teacher-of-the-year types.

The A-Team has the sound majority of the discipline problems, it has the sound majority of the students with learning disabilities, and it has the sound majority of the students who are ESL (speaking English as a second language). With all this in mind, it's easy to see why some people get burned out relatively quickly working with this sort of roster. Our school, like the loving parent that it is, shielded their favorite children (those teacher-of-the-year types) from the A-Team, and instead placed their red-headed, stepchild-from-a-previous marriage (Yours Truly) in the thick of it to handle the situation.

Booya for me. I guess that's what I get for not submitting my lesson plans in a timely manner.

Now, oddly enough, I tend to enjoy the organized chaos that comes with working with kids like this, though - I hate quiet classrooms. They're creepy.

Anyway, the administration decided that if I were to be wrangling kids of this nature, and seeing how I'm so project-based and all, they'd upgrade my room to something larger than the broom-closet I've been teaching in for the last two years. So that right there's the silver-lining to this ol' posting: Mr. Hough has some new digs. Cowabunga.


Behold the pics. Enjoy.

- Brian

- From the front door of the classroom -

- Art and project displays from previous years, set up for the parent open house -

- More of the same -

- From my desk in the back of the room-

- Another shot from the front of the room -