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[farm_boy]

I'm a former university professor who is trying to adjust to public high school teaching.  One of my classes is AP Spanish Literature, and my students are so bored they are at the point of mutiny.  In all their other Spanish classes they've had "fun," but not in mine.  I don't play games, I don't wear a clown suit, I don't take field trips, I don't bring food.  I do bring in some music for some intertextuality, but they say my taste is "boring."  I've shown some film versions of some literary works, but they thought they were weird and.... "boring."  I try to tell some jokes, and sometimes they laugh, but I'm not really funny enough for them.

The AP syllabus includes 38 works in the original Spanish, and it is more rigorous than any Spanish class I ever taught at the university level.

The good news is that I just need to teach a few more years to build up some retirement, so if they fire me after 2 or 3 years, it's no big deal.  But for the young teachers who want to get ahead, they had better entertain, or else.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard the word "boring" from my students.

So.  Should I buy a clown suit?  Should I advise my students not to go to college because it will be too boring?  Should I continue in my Quixotic attempts at teaching literature the "old-fashioned" way? 

I wonder if this "bored" generation is demanding that their college teachers be entertaining.  After all, these customers are purchasing a product.

[csguy]

You should go Spanish Inquisition on them.

It's an AP class -- college level. College profs aren't entertaining (well some are but your students don't know that).

[untenured]

Do you have any external pressures to "entertain"?  I have no idea how high school teaching measures quality.

Untenured

[farm_boy]

Untenured, that is a good question.

There is some pressure to make the Spanish AP Lit program "grow."  But if it doesn't, I think I can fall back on my bread-and-butter classes: 11th grade English, and some younger teacher with "new" ideas can try making the AP program grow.

And I think the pressure is greater for the younger teachers.

[bewildered]

I shamelessly entertain.  It's not that big of a deal. Something outlandish every 12 minutes or so breaks the monotony for the students.  E.g., I'll smuggle a 20-second youtube clip into my PowerPoint.  My evals are quite high, and entertainment is completely compatible with rigorous grading of essays and assigning 200 pages of reading per week (undergrad).

[nerdasaurus]

I just began teaching in a high school as well and my International Baccalaureate Program students are similarly apathetic. The novels were boring. They don't like to read. They don't do the reading or the writing. Their parents complain that I persecute them.
It is terrible.

[cat_on_track]

The request that students be entertained has crept into the "butts-in-seats" university mentality, as well. There is no pedagogical foundation for it. Neither of my kittens ever liked their "entertaining" high school teachers or university professors; they always responded best to those who cold-bloodedly lectured, demanded attention and serious work, and gave Fs generously.

You may have a hard time teaching them appropriate student conduct if other teachers and their parents do not support you. However, I've found that, even surrounded by "oh, the little dears" colleagues, my own cold-bloodedness, attention-demanding, no-smiles, no bulls**t attitude gets even my froshies to behave as if they could fake being a proper university student (and, yes, every semester about 5% request that I should be burned at the stake - 70% are filing to have me beatified and the rest is silently positive). And AP pupils may want to start practicing.

Mangling a quote from (I'm assuming) your political past:

"Don't ask what I can do for my students - ask what my students can do for me!"

[king_ghidorah]

I entertain - YouTube, CDs from comedy movies, true stories from my life.  And I slip in some poems and serious music.  I see nothing wrong with it and I'm not sorry.  No reason education couldn't be just plain old stupid fun from time to time.   

My big question: why-iiiiiiiiiiii would anyone go from university teaching to high school? 

I was in high school once; I was an idiot.  I'll admit it, although I was far to polite to tell any of my teachers that they were "boring" (even though they were).

[king_ghidorah]

Dang it - wrong "to"  Meant to say "too polite."  Sorry.

[kaysixteen]

Welcome to highschoolland.  You forgot to note that, in addition to being entertaining, you also need to give more or less all As, never punish anyone, and keep parents and administrators pleased (which occurs when you do all of the above).

[farm_boy]

Ghidorah:

Why I went from college to high school teaching is a long, long story (you can click on my profile and read through my posts if you're interested).  The short answer is I'm a Loser.

It's not all bad, though, teaching in a high school.

I have 60-80 hour work weeks, but most of that time is directly related to teaching.  There are very few BS committees.

In general my high school students are smarter than my college students were, which keeps me on my toes.  (I taught at a "pretend" university with very low standards.)

Classroom discipline is harder at the high school.  In college, dumb and uninterested students simply slept in class, and I let them.  In high school, these students sometimes talk too much and disrupt class.

In college I never had to call parents.

In high school I actually like the administrators (most of the time).  They really want the students to learn better and to score higher on tests.  At Pretend U the administrators wanted to trick students out of their money, and we were pressured to lie to students and wildly inflate grades.  In the high school there is no pressure to inflate grades.  I gave several Fs last semester.  (Oh, but I don't give Fs to special ed kids, because that would require a whole lot of extra paperwork.  But so far my special ed kids have been great, with good attitudes, and they often outperform the "normal" kids.)

Another difference: my salary at the high school is higher than at Pretend U.

High school teaching is a lot harder, because you have to multitask.  In college I could have stepped out of the classroom for half an hour, and many students wouldn't have noticed.  In high school I have to have several eyes in the back of my head.

[scheherazade]

I taught high school (and middle school!) for several years.  I used to tell my students that I was a mom and a teacher, so that makes two sets of eyes int he back of the head, plus the regular set of eyes.  Oh, and I have excellent hearing and peripheral vision.  And boy, did I need it all!

I was told by admins, other teachers, and some students to be more entertaining.  Screw them.  I'm not a circus act.  I told my students that if they wanted entertainment, they could pay me $9.50 each every time they walked through that door.  No?  OK, well, we're here to learn.  Now, that doesn't mean I wouldn't throw in the occasional joke.  But that's me and my personality.

However, unlike college, you cannot get away with straight lecture.  You have to break it up with discussion, projects, etc.  That's the biggest adjustment (so I've heard) going from college to high school.  But once you make that adjustment, things run so much more smoothly.

Oh, and the multitasking, etc.?  I am not a naturally organized person, but I can be an organizational diva in the classroom.  I had a system and a spot for everything.  If I hadn't done that, I would have lost my mind by November my first year.

If you ever have any questions about high school teaching, PM me and I'm more than willing to share the things that worked for me.  I worked in several districts - rural, urban, suburban - so I'm pretty familiar with a variety of school environments.  I taught history and poli sci, but some stuff is applicable across the board.  And do pick your colleague's brains - anyone who has taught this class before can give you ideas.  Asking for help in the high school is a good thing, opposed to the sign of fatal weakness it seems to be in many colleges.  If there isn't someone at your school who can help, email an AP Spanish instructor at another school.  Search the web for AP Spanish class websites and get ideas.  Speak to those instructors.  They'll be happy to share, and you'll feel better for it.

[king_ghidorah]

Farm Boy, clearly you are not a loser.  I'm on-schedule but still languishing in ABD land and anyone with a PhD is strictly amazing to me.  Your story sounds like you got fed up with standards and quit.  Not a loser move but pretty ideological.  I have a friend who did a creative writing degree and taught for the first time in a big school in the south.  On the first assignment he flunked half his composition class outright and was called into the head's office and told to re-grade.  Still, I'm awfully glad some of my profs let me work up to speed.

Good luck to you and throw in some YouTube clips of Japanese game shows - kids love those.

[msmommy]

I taught AP Spanish in high school briefly.  YES they want to be entertained, it was really hard for me to accept.  The generations now are so wired on TV, video games, etc they don't know how to "just read" or imagine in their heads the story!  They have no appreciation of English lit either, my mother was a high school English teacher until her retirement this last year. 

It starts young, my children's play mates get "bored" 2 minutes after the playdough is pulled out and my kids can sit there for hours -- that made me mad, I made that little kid sit there bored or not!  My kids tried to engage him and he was just "bored", tist, tist, tist.  He had been in daycare since he was born, I guess daycare move kids activity to activity so fast they get used to it and "need" it to not be "bored".  I have zero sympathy.

I tried to make the literature "fun", I read with influction and tone as if I were reading to me then almost 3 yr old.  The problem I had is their fundamental understanding of spoken Spanish by a native speaker was not there.  It wasn't there in written form either truthfully.  When you are in 4th yr Spanish and don't know what the word Sangre means, I'm not thinking they knew much at all.

I read a children's story book in Spanish that belonged to my 3 yr old, they loved it, but didn't understand it either.  Seriously, bring in a children's story book with pictures and see how smart they are!  The pictures should tell them the "gist" of the story, nope, these knuckle head I had couldn't even summarize a childrens story book with pictures.  My mistake was telling them they did not belong in Spanish IV or V given their lack of understanding a 3 yr old child's story book!  Ouch.  (I didn't stay long.)

They want pictures, movies, etc.  They want to pass the class without doing work.  They want it to come easy and that is the bottom line.  They want to learn to dance Salsa!  Well, I showed them, even if they didn't want to learn it.

They liked drills for vocabulary, like running up to the board and writing them.  I can not remember for the life of me exactly how that was working, I used it a lot.  2 rows, 2 teams, up to the board like a relay.  Candy rewards were also much loved.  It's like you buy their attention! 

Reward of a movie is also a plus, I love SAP!  You can get modern movies (approved of course) and they are all in Spanish via the SAP.  I also brought in some of my favorite TV novelas from living in Latin America, I would pull out just 1 clip and have them translate as an opening activity.  I would play Latin rock and pop music at the beinging of some classes, my favorites usually - Mana, Los Complices, Migel Bose, La Ley, etc.  I would sometimes have them tell me what the song was about or I would tell them.

It was a serious challenge to come up with 90min block sch plans that kept them "entertained".  And I was tired pregnant w my 2nd child.  It was also my first year teaching and I do not have a teaching degree.  I was "alternate route to licensure".  I took suggestions from my mentor seriously and went asking for ideas on 'activities' to engage them within the context of learning the literature.

Teaching AP Spanish was harder than any Spanish class I ever took!  I spent more time preping to teach than I did studying for 18 hour semesters in college.

More power to you if you can make it work.

[lindakrzy]

Undergraduates have been brought up on video games, computer games, text messaging, IMing etc.  They know nothing but entertainment.  It is not surprising that trying to keep their attention requires some aspect of enterning them.  But you can't get your content across if they aren't listening, so I guess there is some aspect of teaching that requires you to keep their attention.